The Scholastic Awards National Events gets better and better each year! We started this year off with a Social Media Scavenger Hunt where we asked students to start posting pictures with the hashtag #goldkey as soon as they left home for New York City. During check-in, students and educators posted messages thanking those who helped them with their art and writing and made the trip to New York possible. June 11 was the big day: the National Ceremony at Carnegie Hall! This year’s Ceremony was like no other, with wonderful special guests such as Whoopi Goldberg, Matthew Morrison, Chelsea Clinton, Michelle Tan from Seventeen magazine, 2015 Alumni Achievement Honoree Donald Lipski, artist Tom Otterness, poet Vijay Seshadri, and YouTube personality JennXPenn. All the while, students and educators to kept tweeting, Instagramming, Facebooking, and Tumbling throughout the events, so all of social media was on fire with posts about the 2015 National Ceremony! After the Ceremony, the students headed to our 2nd Annual Maker Prom, a dancing and DIY-art-making mash-up! We pulled no punches this year with almost twice the number of maker stations, classic video game cabinets, a great DJ, and an awesome evening-ending balloon drop. After the prom, it was time to head on over to the Empire State Building. This historic landmark was lit in – what else? – gold to celebrate the 2015 National Medalists!

The Student Showcase at the Art.Write.Now.2015 National Exhibition took place on June 12. The Showcase was a great chance for students to read their work during open mic, participate in hands-on art workshops, hear dramatic readings by youth theater group The Possibility Project, and participate in talks by the art and writing 2015 Gold Medal Portfolio recipients.

All in all, the 2015 National Events was an amazing experience. Check out all of the social media buzz!