Thursday night, Dr. April Aldridge recognized the Young Georgia Authors Writing winners at the April Board of Education Meeting.

One of the winners was senior Morgan Sykes, who has now won three times in a row. Sykes winning piece was a poem this year entitled “True Colors.” The poem was based off her personal experience.

Sykes said when she wrote the poem, her and her boyfriend had just broken up and in her poem she expressed the final realization that she couldn’t make everyone happy and she couldn’t make someone stay, who no longer was interested.

This is not the first time Sykes has drawn from personal experience to write something that would impact others. In her previous winning pieces, she discussed bullying and the toll it took on her mentally.

However, Sykes said she’s not in it to win. She said she just wants to create a platform for all kids to write, even those little kindergarteners who are just winning with their first stories. She hopes the teachers read their stories and nourish their ability and continue to encourage them to write.

Sykes hopes this last story was not her final one. She plans to get a Masters in Library sciences, so she is able to write and continue to read at the same time.

Another notable winner was junior, Dianna Silva.

Silva wrote a narrative about her parents coming to the United States from Mexico. She had a passion for sharing their story.

“They came here with nothing to give us everything,” Silva said.

Silva said there are not many Hispanics in the area so it made her really proud to win and share her parent’s story with people who did not already know it. Her ultimate goal was to just make her parents proud of her story.

Silva is not sure she wants to continue writing, but she hopes to be a social worker or teacher.

These are only two of the many winning authors, but Aldridge was proud of the growth and talent students are showing in their writing and knows they will only continue to develop more future authors.