Kamehameha Schools Senior Earns Writing Honors

January 3, 2002

Contributed by Kekoa Paulsen

Nearly 3,000 high school students from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Canada, Virgin Islands and American schools abroad participated in the program that recognizes writing excellence based on samples of the student's best prose or verse and impromptu themes written under teacher supervision. The program is administered each spring during the students' junior year and awarded in his/her senior year.

Gail Woliver, who teaches Honors English at Kamehameha, was Soon's teacher/mentor for NCTE's 2001 writing program. Of her award-winning student she says: "Russell is a powerful writer whose ability to describe the familiar in unique ways can move us and broaden our perspective."

Russell Soon was recently named a National Merit Scholar Semi-finalist and during his junior year at Kamehameha, the multi-talented Soon was a National Gold Key Finalist in computer graphics at the 38th Annual Hawai'i Regional Scholastic Art Exhibition & Photography Exhibit in February 2001. In a competition where typically fewer than 15 percent of submitted artwork is accepted for display, Soon's Gold Key Award winning entry was chosen as the cover art for the statewide competition's catalog.

In recognition of his writing accomplishment, the NCTE presented both Soon and Kamehameha Schools' Kapalama Campus English Department a certificate of commendation. Soon's name is also published in a booklet listing NCTE's 2001 award winners that is distributed to directors of admissions at 3,000 two- and four-year colleges and universities, to members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, to state supervisors of English, and to NCTE leaders.