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View Winners → Arcadia Students Spread Hope Through Podcast Poetry Contest
Arcadia Weekly May 28, 2020
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By Arcadia Unified DigitalCommunications Intern Claire Li
During thesedifficult and isolating times, it is often hard to find hope and maintain apositive outlook. Aiming to help promote a sense of hope throughout theircommunity, Arcadia Unified School District’s (AUSD) Digital CommunicationsInternship (DCI) students hosted a poetry contest centered around the theme of“hope.”
The idea tocreate a district-wide poetry contest for the Keepin’ it Arcadia studentpodcast created by DCI first came about during a weekly DCI meeting back inMarch.
Sofia Nagy,a junior at Arcadia High School who helped lead the construction of the poetrycontest, mentioned, “The idea of a poetry contest was the fruit of collectivecreativity. I brought poetry into the conversation, then DCI transformed itinto a possible and fun project to do, and it happened.” Nagy added, “Thisdistrict-wide poetry contest really was an outcome of two things: the first onebeing the confusing, panic-inducing, and overwhelming news about COVID-19, andthe second one being that, during an online DCI meeting, I mentioned thatpoetry is one of my favorite things I’ve been doing while staying at home.”
DCI decidedon the theme of hope because, as Nagy noted, “Hope is something that has keptus pushing onward, and keeps us going day to day. When in utter fear andincertitude, sometimes we can forget that there is such a thing as hope — so,we need a reminder. This poetry contest is meant to be that reminder.”
Middleschool and high school students throughout AUSD were invited to share theirpoems about hope. The students were encouraged to create acrostic poemsspelling out “hope” or “hopeful,” judged by DCI podcast members on theircreativity, originality, clarity, and congruence to the theme.
Winners ofthe contest not only had their poems read on the Keepin’ it Arcadia Podcast broadcaston Spotify and Apple Podcasts, but also had the chance to get their workpublished on the Sienna Solstice, a magazine co-created by two Arcadiaseniors.
Three middleschool and three high school students were awarded, including Arcadia Highjunior Maureen Zhang. “I think hope is extremely important during a situationlike this, in which an unprecedented pandemic makes way into an alreadyprejudiced world,” Zhang said. “In writing the poem, I hope for a brighterfuture of genuine equality between people of all ethnicities.”
Speaking about the goals of the poetry contest, Nagy noted that one objective was “for students to talk and listen to other students.” Another goal was to emphasize the theme of the contest, helping spread the importance and possibility of hope throughout Arcadia. Nagy added, “Regardless of how bad a situation may be, having hope is the start to making a situation better. We want to get that message across.”
