Sycamore School District 427's Board of Education recognized Young Author award winners

SYCAMORE – Sycamore District 427 School Board President Jim Dombek recognized four students chosen as the district’s Young Author award recipients Tuesday at the Sycamore Middle Schools ELA room.

Although student Penelope Jourdain, who represented the kindergarten through first-grade division, was absent from the award ceremony, Dombek continued to honor the others in attendance.

Lainey Person represented the
second- through third-grade division after being recognized for writing "No More First Ladies: A Story About Why Women Should be President," a story she described about how the U.S. should have a women president and not a "boy" president.

Lainey’s story covered the histories of Eleanor Roosevelt, Michelle Obama, Lady Bird Johnson and both Barbara and Laura Bush, as well as their missions while in office. Lainey also described what she would do if she were president: to “care for the rights of everyone.”

Brooke Boryla, a fourth-grade student, won her award for writing “Carter and Fanny,” which is about two friends and how they break apart when one of them gets popular in middle school.

“It’s about how they restore their friendship,” Brooke said.

She said Fanny gets bullied in middle school, but then Carter later helps her because he felt bad about breaking off their friendship.

“What does he do that we don’t see a lot of people do these days?” Dombek asked Brooke.

“Apologize,” Brooke said.

Aaliyah Gallegos, a seventh-grade student, won her award for writing “Sweet Spirit,” which is about a teenage girl named Sally who has no friends and has an alcoholic mother. Sally is a shy girl and has an older brother, bringing them closer together, and she later is saved by her guardian angel.

Sycamore Middle School Principal Jim Cleven said that when he first read Aaliyah’s story, he wondered whether there was something going on at her home since students write about what they know. He was relieved to discover the story was fiction.

“But we checked it all out and, no, she just has a vivid imagination,” Cleven said. “It was a great story, but it scared me at first when I read it.”