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Alarie, Seymour win 10th Grade Great Works Contest
It has been five years since the English department began the Great Works competition, which allows sophomores the opportunity to have a book of their choice integrated into the 10th grade English curriculum. Last night, this year’s winners were announced and a modern novel about mental health and a classic from the realm of science fiction were chosen by judges, including four past winners of the Great Works competition.
Matthew Quick’s Silver Linings Playbook, presented by Annie Seymour and Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, presented by Christian Alarie, will be read by 10th-grade students later this year.
“I would say that the quality of the presentations continues to be extremely high from year to year and, this year, left the judges with an extremely difficult job of assessing multiple high-caliber speeches from several different classes,” said Andrew Seidman, who teaches the English 10 Honors classes. “Annie’s delivery balanced poise and passion. She persuasively advocated that great literature should achieve a mix between reflecting ourselves, our own internal struggles and conflicts, and inspiring empathy for those unlike ourselves, and the conflicts and struggles that they face.”
"It's a challenging project to start off sophomore year with, but it helps you gain so many skills that will be helpful throughout the year and throughout high school,” said Annie, who also appreciated the public speaking exercises and games in class before the graded speeches. "It got me very comfortable with my classmates. When I gave my first-round speech, I had this support group around me. I didn’t notice the judges in the back. I was excited to share how great I thought my book was with my classmates."
Christian said he decided to read his book because of his love for science fiction, including the film Blade Runner, which was based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? "It takes a really good book to get me hooked. It started out really complicated, but after a while you begin to catch on and from there it becomes more interesting."
Morgan Evans, who teaches the English 10 classes, was impressed with the emotion that Christian relayed in his presentation.
“While many of the speeches were delivered with emotion, Christian did perhaps the best job of matching the emotion in his voice to the subject matter at hand,” Evans said. “In both the content and delivery of this speech, the intriguing yet terrifying prospect of artificial intelligence came through clearly. He also linked Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? to current events without neglecting to address the specific power of the novel itself, and this can be a tricky balance.”
Other finalists that presented on Wednesday were Jake Lee (Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World), Coby Kapner (Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People) and Caroline Milne (Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See). While winners were selected based on their oral presentation, there was also a poster component to the project. Grace Chang won the poster competition for her book, Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson. Honorable mention for posters were Sarah Schwartz for Geraldine Brooks’ People of the Book and Nick Tsintolas for Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.
Annie and Christian will also get to be judges next year when the Class of 2021 takes on the assignment. Previous winners that were judges this year were Nicole Daoust ’19, Cameron Reeder ’19, Sydney Jackson ’18 and Joy Reeves ’18.
For now, it’s still all about this year for Annie and Christian and the excitement of winning.
"[The book] gave a different perspective on a mental institution I had never heard before. I immediately knew it was going to challenge my beliefs,” said Annie, who is excited to see how her classmates react to the book. “I think the dialogue it will spark (in class) will be so interesting.”
"I was just really happy when they read my name," Christian said. "It made all the work I've put in over the past two months, the dedication...it felt like it was all worth it."
St. Andrew’s Episcopal School is a private, coeducational college preparatory day school for students in preschool (Age 2) through grade 12, located in Potomac, Maryland.