On August 24, the NYC Scholastic Awards hosted an Educator Appreciation Breakfast for New York City educators to introduce them to the Scholastic Awards and thank them for all of the hard work they do in the classroom to support their students. Sponsored by the Garcia Family Foundation, the event gave educators the chance to learn more about the Scholastic Awards, ask questions about participating, and enjoy a creative workshop.

Educators were welcomed to the Scholastic Inc. offices where they were treated to a breakfast and given the chance to mingle with Scholastic Awards staff. After the breakfast, Virginia McEnerney, Executive Director of the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, personally thanked the educators and gave a presentation about the Scholastic Awards, its legacy, and how students can participate and become part of the next generation of great American artists and writers.

Following the presentation, the educators were broken up into two groups. We planned art and writing workshops for the educators to help inspire them for the coming school year and to show support for them outside of the classroom. Art educators joined artist Pinky Weber for a workshop about editorial cartoons while writing educators participated in a workshop with writer Mahogany Browne.

The day ended with a Q&A between the educators and Scholastic Awards staff. Questions ranged from “Can students resubmit works from previous years?” (A: only in a senior art or writing portfolio!) to “What does it mean to receive Honorable Mention?” (A: it means the work shows great skill and potential, and we encourage the student to keep honing their craft and resubmit!).

Our appreciation for our educators knows no bounds–the work they do and the support they give their students are priceless, and our Educator Appreciation Breakfast was just a small step in showing how much we love our educators.

Scholastic Awards staff enjoyed meeting educators from New York City and learning that many of them are artists and writers in their spare time. We hope these educators will encourage their students to participate in the 2018 Scholastic Awards–who knows, maybe we’ll see a few familiar faces at the 2018 National Events!