For the second consecutive year, five students from Garden City High School have been recognized with 2026 Achievement Awards in Writing from the National Council of Teachers of English.

Established in 1957, the NCTE Achievement Awards in Writing is a school-based program that encourages high school juniors to write and recognizes the nation’s top student writers. This year, 689 students were nominated by schools from 38 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. Internationally, students were nominated from Canada, Jamaica, Mexico, South Africa, South Korea and Taiwan.

Each submission was reviewed holistically by two to three independent judges from across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Jamaica and Taiwan. Judges evaluated each piece for expression of ideas, language use, and unique perspective and voice. Students received distinctions of First Class, Superior, Excellent or Merit.

Congratulations to Garden City High School recipients Gianluca Damiano (First Class), Tiffany Zhang (First Class), Genevieve Mohan (Superior), Taylor Maguire (Excellent) and Trisha Samanpure (Excellent).

The district would like to thank English teachers Laurie Bocca, Crystal Ferraiolo, Amy Regis, Samara Skolnik and Suzanne Tavernise for reviewing submissions and selecting the final entries for the competition.