By Madeline Alden
Cole Freeman, a senior here at BHS, was recently awarded a prestigious national writing award. He was one of 525 high school seniors across the country to win the award. Only 10 students from Connecticut were honored by the National Council of Teachers of English Achievement Awards in Writing in 2007. In all, 1,789 students were nominated.
To even be considered for this award, a student must be nominated by an English teacher. Each school can only nominate two juniors per year. Cole Freeman was nominated by Mrs. Gina Lucibello, his teacher for English 11 Honors.
For the submitted work, Freeman sent in a character sketch but the piece he had really wanted to send had accidentally been deleted by his brother beforehand.
The next task was a timed essay under supervision. The bigger challenge for Freeman was to write under time constraints with few options to choose from. The theme he chose was dirty politics.
When asked about his writing Cole said, “I never considered my writing to be that good, but apparently they thought so.” And that they did.
Freeman may be modest, but due to his talent, the English program and the teachers are recognized by the NCTE.
Freeman’s name will also be published in a booklet that is sent to the members of the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives in addition to the NCTE leaders.
