Mosaic Celebrating Diversity through Creative Writing 2020-2021 Awards Ceremony May 26, 2021 Program Welcome & Remarks Ari Z. Brooks, Master of Ceremonies Cover Art Apple Award Keynote Address Andrew Aydin Student Winners and Honorable Mentions 6th Grade Winners Nishka Soni, Essay, Lakelands Park Middle School Alana Applebaum, Poem, Thomas Pyle Middle School Annabel Taylor, Short Story, Thomas Pyle Middle School 6th Grade Honorable Mentions Elizabeth Chung, Essay, Herbert Hoover Middle School Jocelyn Nolasco Fernandez, Essay, Col. E. Brooke Lee Middle School Nia George, Poem, Takoma Park Middle School Kaya Herr, Poem, John Poole Middle School Desiderio Trabucco, Short Story, Ridgeview Middle School Syeda Gilani, Short Story, Parkland Middle School 7th Grade Winners Aleks Rann, Essay, Westland Middle School Abigail Cho, Poem, Hallie Wells Middle School Maia Petrov, Short Story, John Poole Middle School Student, Grade, School, Submission Type, W/HM 7th Grade Honorable Mentions Belen Hailu, Poem, Sligo Middle School Mary Belay, Poem, Francis Scott Key Middle School Belinda Adu, Short Story, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School Emily Ponciano, Short Story, John Poole Middle School 8th Grade Winners Sanya Bharti, Essay, Herbert Hoover Middle School Florence Halbgewachs, Poem, John Poole Middle School Kaleab Ayele, Short Story, Forest Oak Middle School 8th Grade Honorable Mention Tharaa Izuagie, Poem, Francis Scott Key Middle School Closing Remarks Special Thanks Andrew Aydin, Irene Coleman, Siham Eldadah, Latrice Rogers, Grant Goldstein, Jill Raspen, Rachel Bennett, Carrie Vieira, Melissa McDonald, Frances Frost, Yesenia Flores Diaz, Frank Joseph, and Kathy Bittinger. Judges Lynn Abrahamson, Katie Engen, Larissa Johnson, Corinne Nichols, Mark Schwartz, Karen Shapiro, Rivka Yerushalmi. Ari Z. Brooks ~ Master of Ceremonies Ms. Brooks, MSW is an experienced fundraiser and nonprofit manager having held leadership positions in three not-for-profit organizations for twenty-five years in Maryland and Pennsylvania. Her work has primarily focused on engaging and inspiring the community to provide volunteer and philanthropic support. She lectures and trains library-support groups throughout the region on organizational development, fundraising, and program development and evaluation. Andrew Aydin ~ Keynote Speaker Andrew Aydin, an Atlanta native, was raised by a single mother and grew up reading everything, particularly comic books. After college, Andrew took a job with the late Congressman John Lewis in Washington, D.C. A year later, while serving as Press Secretary on the Congressman's re-election campaign, Andrew had the idea that Congressman Lewis should write a comic book to tell the story of his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. Though it took a little convincing, Congressman Lewis eventually agreed on the condition that Andrew write it with him. Andrew became the driving force behind MARCH, which in 2016 became the first comics work to ever win the National Book Award and reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. Andrew is a Robert F. Kennedy Book Award Honoree, a Printz Award winner, a Sibert Medal winner, a Walter Dean Myers Award winner, a Carter G. Woodson Book Award winner, a two-time Eisner award winner, and the recipient of multiple Coretta Scott King honors. A graduate of Trinity College in Hartford and Georgetown University in Washington, Andrew wrote the first history of the 1957 comic book Martin Luther King & The Montgomery Story as his graduate thesis. Andrew is also the former Digital Director & Policy Advisor to Congressman Lewis, and co- author, with Congressman Lewis, of the forthcoming RUN graphic novels, the sequel to the MARCH trilogy. About FOLMC Friends of the Library, Montgomery County (FOLMC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to strengthen, promote, and champion Montgomery County Public Libraries (MCPL), for it to better serve the learning interests and needs of the diverse and changing communities of the County. FOLMC operates two used bookstores and is the parent organization of 17 volunteer-run chapters. The organization provides program support, matching funds, and specific materials and equipment to augment public monies and maintain a quality public library system. Learn more at www.folmc.org..