Grade 11 Student Earns International Writing Award
St. Michael’s College School (SMCS) Grade 11 student, Chanoh Song, recently received an achievement award in writing from the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), earning the ‘Superior’ distinction for his English essay, “Freedom Between the Pages.”
The NCTE has been around since 1911, with more than 25,000 members, from kindergarten teachers to university professors. Its Achievement Awards in Writing have recognized standout student writers since 1957—nearly seven decades of honouring student excellence in writing.
The competition wasn’t small. This year, 689 students were nominated from schools across the United States, Canada, Jamaica, Mexico, South Africa, South Korea, and Taiwan.
Song was nominated by his AP English Language and Composition teacher, Ms. Vanessa Iaboni. The course centres on evidence-based writing, rhetorical analysis of non-fiction texts, and the decisions writers make as they compose and revise.
“As part of the course, students read and analyzed essays by Fran Lebowitz, James Baldwin, and David Foster Wallace—and Song’s winning piece fits squarely in that tradition, written as creative non-fiction in the same genre the class has been studying all year,” says Iaboni.
The piece reflects on a summer spent in South Korea—reading, thinking, and figuring things out through literature and philosophy.
“I’ve always enjoyed English, especially discussion, analysis, and writing,” adds Song. “Over time, I became more confident in expressing complex ideas and developing my own voice. Writing has become a passion for me because it lets me explore ideas more deeply and communicate perspectives that matter to me. At this stage in my life, it feels like both a creative outlet and a way to better understand the world around me.”
Judges read each submission and weighed everything from the strength of the ideas to the tone, word choice, organization, and style. Earning the top designation of ‘Superior’ puts Song among a very small group.
“When I found out about the NCTE results, it was honestly unexpected,” says Song. “Being recognized internationally feels incredibly rewarding and humbling. Writing is usually such a personal and private process, so having my work resonate beyond my classroom and community means a lot to me.”
This isn’t the first time Song’s writing has turned heads. He earned a silver medal in the Harvard International Review Academic Writing Contest and was shortlisted for the John Locke Institute Global Essay Competition—a prestigious international competition that brought him to London for the awards ceremony at Grosvenor House.
“Chanoh has always put a lot of effort into everything that he does, so it was no surprise to me that he wanted to enter this writing contest,” says Iaboni. “The piece itself was quite reflective, showing how reading can be one of the best pathways for self-discovery.
“It’s especially important for young people to hear this, particularly young men, especially in a world in which addictive technology is vying for every ounce of their attention span. I especially liked how open he was to reading different genres and learning everything he could from them. Most of all, the connection he made in the essay between co-existing with suffering and with peace was especially poignant.”
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