For the second consecutive year a Porter-Gaud student has been honored with a National Council of Teachers of English Achievement in Writing. Melissa Slayton, daughter of Bill and Anita Slayton, was among 525 students chosen from all 50 States, the District of Columba, the Virgin Islands, Canada, and American schools abroad. The NCTE allows schools to nominate one candidate per 500 students to compete for the honor. Each student submits 10 pages from any combination of genres and then writes a supervised two-hour impromptu essay on a topic chosen by the Council. A section editor for the Grits and editor-in-chief for the Watch, Melissa read one of her submissions, her villanelle “Tennessee,” last month at the National Honor Society Induction. For the impromptu essay, Melissa had two options, to compose a short story with a moral or to write a fictitious letter to the editor discussing political advertising. Melissa opted for the short story, which will be published by “a literary magazine that is distributed nationally.” Melissa follows Abigail Droge, who received the same recognition last year. We look forward to Melissa’s literary success as she continues the tradition of published Porter-Gaud alumni. If you would like to know more about the award or to see a list of the winners, you can do so by following this link: