Young Writers Awards is an international writing competition organised by Bennington College for high school students. Under this competition, students can either submit a short story, personal/academic essay or a group of three poetries. I decided to participate in this competition as I have interest and skills in writing so I wrote three poetries. The goal of this experience was to extend my writing skills and since I have never participated in a large scale competition, get experience of the same.

LO1 – Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

I was able to identify strengths like coming up with new ideas, imagery and time management. I had weaknesses like my poetry being prosaic, the ending not being surprising, telling instead of showing. I could identify the weaknesses with the help of my English teacher who was my supervisor for this experience. Identifying these weaknesses allows me to improve my writing because the first step to improve is to recognise mistakes. After getting feedback from my teacher, I was able to make some improvements in my poems. However it could have been better, but the improvements will come naturally with time.

LO2 – Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

The most challenging aspect of this experience was that I had to do it during my term exams. This was challenging as I had to manage my time so that I compromised neither on my exams nor on this experience. Through this, I improved my time management skills such that I completed writing the three poetries and initial editing a week before the deadline. This allowed me time to gain valuable feedback and edit my work further. After undertaking this challenge, I feel more confident in my time management and organising skills which will help me stay on track for my future projects. Learning these self management skills is important because it allows me to be productive, meet deadlines and avoid stress of last minute work.

LO6 – Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance

In one of my poems, I engage with issues like light pollution and global violence. Light pollution is a worldly issue which includes the excessive use of artificial light at night. This damages ecosystems, washes out the starlight and contributes to harmful carbon dioxide emissions. Violence and hate crimes in the name of religion, caste, race, gender among others are also a prevalent issue in our global society disrupting the lives of many. Knowing about concerns has lead me to be more sensitive towards environmental issues and be more open-minded towards our individual differences.

LO7 – Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions

The ethical consideration involved in this experience was plagiarism. Although I read other poetries to gain inspiration, I ensured that what I wrote were my own ideas and remained authentic and honest in my work. Even before this experience, I considered plagiarism in creative writing as unethical and my views have remained the same.

The learner profile characteristics that I developed in this activity are:

• Knowledgeable – I gained new knowledge about how to write better poetry like cutting the flab, better diction, more imagery is required, avoiding prosaic poetry, etc.
• Thinker – All the stages of this experience required creative thinking skills – in coming up with ideas, writing the poetry and editing.
• Principled – I practice this learner attribute by not plagiarizing my work and doing it with integrity.
• Reflective – This experience required me to be reflective during the editing and also while taking feedback from others.