作者： chenchen

Winner

Miki Schnitzer, 16, from Plainsboro, N.J., responded to an Opinion essay headlined “What Joan Nathan Taught Me About the Power of Showing Up.” She wrote:

A trio of uniquely spiced nuts, an ocean of smoked fish floating on bagels, platters of corned beef decorated with pickled tomatoes — first someone dies, then everyone expects us to eat.

Looking back on when my grandfather died this November, what sticks out among the throngs of people that shuffled in and out of my house was the food they left. As they say, actions speak louder than words, and as Sarah Wildman writes, “in mourning and in crisis food is often an action, an act.” Food is familiar. Food is nourishing and a vital part of human life. Food is also the perfect way to deliver comfort when words fail to do so.

Being a Jew living in a predominantly Indian and Asian community, I wasn’t sure what to expect of my neighbors as my family began sitting shiva. How would they reconcile their culture with our tradition? They did it the best way they could: by showing up, and showing up with food. In the days following the funeral, my fridge became chock-full of dosas, samosas, chutneys, and Indian sweets. They asked thoughtful questions about shiva, respectfully listened, and connected it to their own mourning traditions.

It is easy to point out differences between communities. It takes patience, respect, and curiosity to understand what bridges those gaps. Amidst a year of heightened division and hate, I find solace in the fact that sharing food and one’s time are actions that never get lost in translation.

Runners-Up

In alphabetical order by the writer’s first name.

Andy Qi on “Are Planes Safe Right Now? Here’s What the Experts Say.”

Caroline on “Mary Cassatt’s Women Didn’t Sit Pretty”

Diane Tang on “Old and Young, Talking Again”

Jennifer Ma on “260 McNuggets? McDonald’s Ends A.I. Drive-Through Tests Amid Errors“

Semi Jung on “Lets Chill Out About Apostrophes”

Shenyao (Sean) Xu on “Where Did Our Strange Use of ‘Like’ Come From?”

Vanessa on “The Joys and Perils of Return Travel”

Honorable Mentions

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什么困扰着你？谁能为此做点什么？你能说些什么来说服那个人关心或做出改变？你怎么能让我们也关心呢？

这些是我们在今年春天新的公开信比赛中向青少年提出的问题，邀请学生就对他们来说重要的问题向个人或团体写一封面向公众的信。我们收到了 8,000 多份回复。

这些信是写给参议员的，是关于让医疗保健更容易获得的，写给Z世代的，是关于拥抱善良的，写给泰勒·斯威夫特的，是关于减少碳排放的，这些信是直接的、热情的和有力的。

在下面，在这个PDF中，您将找到150多名决赛入围者的名单，我们正在表彰他们的工作。我们将完整发布九封获奖信件——在接下来的两周内每天一封。我们希望您能阅读它们，并通过评论他们的作品让作者知道您的想法。

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学生公开信竞赛获奖者

按字母顺序，按作者的名字排序：

Top 9 Winners

Alexander Klee, 16, Amity Regional High School, Woodbridge, Conn.: “Every High School Student Can Save a Life”

Alexis Rippon, 13, Geelong Grammar School, Geelong, Australia: “The Devil From Down Under”

Anya Wang, 16, Ridge High School, Basking Ridge, N.J.: “A Letter From a ‘Loser’”

Casey Goldstein, 17, Byram Hills High School, Armonk, N.Y.: “Dear New York State Senators, Could You Please Repeat That?”

Emma Wang, 15, Choate Rosemary Hall, Wallingford, Conn.: “Reclaiming Singapore’s Credit for Success: Removing Colonialist Statues”

Justin Kim, 16, Seoul Foreign School, Seoul: “A Letter to Midjourney”

Leela Uppaluri, 16, The Winsor School, Boston: “Accepting Autism: A Sibling’s Perspective”

Lucy Robb, 17, Jesuit High School, Portland, Ore.: “Grass Lawns: Lavish and Lamentable”

Oliver Bohon, 17, Bloomington High School South, Bloomington, Ind.: “Insulin: Drugs vs. Dividends”

Runners-Up

Aila Woods, 17, Brooklyn Technical High School, Brooklyn, N.Y.: “To the Mothers of the 9-Year-Olds in Sephora”

Aliyah Majeed-Hall, 16, The Potomac School, McLean, Va.: “Why Gen Z Needs Ted Lasso”

Callisto Lim, 17, Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Houston: “Reinstate DEI in Texas Universities: An Open Letter”

Celine Tay, 17, Shanghai: “Dear Moms and Dads, We Should Talk About Sex”

Jessie Hui Hu, 17, Colégio Bandeirantes, São Paulo, Brazil: “Dear Taylor Swift, Let’s Shake Off Those Carbon Emissions!”

Lauren, 14, Seoul International School, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea: “An Open Letter to Mr. James Quincey Addressing Worker Exploitation in India”

Matan Davies, 17, Scarsdale High School, Scarsdale, N.Y.: “An Open Letter to Governor Hochul From a High Schooler Entering Society”

Natalie Krause, 16, South Lyon High School, South Lyon, Mich.: “My (Menstrual) Education”

Niah L. Maduakolam, 15, Munster High School, Munster, Ind.: “An Open Letter to Schools Districts that Discriminate Against Afro-Centric Hairstyles”

Om Nair, 17, North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, Durham, N.C.: “An Open Letter to the Commissioner of the F.D.A., Written By a Maternal Orphan”

Rongfei Mu, 16, Beijing World Youth Academy, Beijing: “An Open Letter to Prime Minister Kishida”

Sofia Fontenot, 18, Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Houston: “An Open Letter to Labi Siffre”

Sophie Jin, 14, Shanghai American School, Shanghai: “N.Y.C. Needs to Pee — An Open Letter to the New York City Council”

Honorable Mentions

Abigail King, 16, Pleasantville High School, Pleasantville, N.Y.: “An Open Letter to Mental Health Professionals From a Member of the Lockdown Generation”

Amy Lau, 15, Roosevelt High School, San Antonio, Texas: “Letter to Washington: End the Use of Hateful Rhetoric”

Anniyah Rizvi, 17, Langley High School, McLean, Va.: “An Open Letter to the English Language”

Ava Resnick, 13, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, Bronx, N.Y.: “An Open Letter to Screenagers: Start Living Outside the Phone-Shaped Box”

Caroline Serenyi, 18, Holton-Arms School, Bethesda, Md.: “A Necessary Breakup”

Chiana Le, 17, Tarbut V’Torah Community Day School, Irvine, Calif.: “Dental Healthcare Isn’t a Privilege, It Is a Natural Right”

Chidera Okeke, 15, The Berkshire School, Sheffield, Mass.: “Written in the Margins”

Claire Weng, 14, Clements High School, Sugar Land, Texas: “Leaving Library Fines Behind”

Clementine Lu, 15, World Foreign Language School: “Let Kids Be Kids in High School Interviews”

Cyrus Sarfaty, 17, Upper Canada College, Toronto: “Regrets From a Font-Fretting Fussbudget”

Daniel Kang, 16, Tanglin Trust School, Singapore: “Open Letter to Men: Breaking the Silence on Mental Health”

Ella Dickinson, 15, East Chapel Hill High School, Chapel Hill, N.C.: “Dear United States Preventative Task Force”

Eva Manevski, 17, South Lyon High School, South Lyon, Mich.: “Oh Crickets: Turning Over a New Leaf for Food”

Felize Riona G. Ilagan, 16, Philippine Science High School - Main Campus, Quezon City, Philippines: “An Open Letter to the Tycoons of the Global North”

Georgia Bond, 17, Lower Merion High School, Ardmore, Pa.: “Reforming Our College Admissions Culture”

Harshitha Sudhakar, 17, South Lyon High School, South Lyon, Mich: “What Is the Value in Movie Classics?”

Irene Yebin Joh, 14, Seoul International School, Gyeonggi-do: “Beyond ‘Gifted’: Embracing Diversity in Washington’s Classrooms”

Isha Harbaugh, 17, Bloomington High School South, Bloomington, Ind.: “My Life, My Choice: An Open Letter”

Jessica Zhang, 15, Sage Hill School, Newport Beach, Calif.: “Fast Fashion Brands: Your Young Customers Are Heading for the Exit”

Jina Song, 15, Seoul Foreign School, Seoul: “Mayor Oh, Stop Suffocating Us With Seoul’s Waste”

Kathryne Hong, 16, Durham Academy: “Farewell From Nowhere”

Leah Platts-Mills, 14, Smith Middle School, Chapel Hill, N.C.: “An Open Letter Advocating for Accessible Swimming Lessons”

Lila Boutin, 16, School One, Providence, R.I.: “Dear U.S.D.A.: Underresourced Communities Can Only Join Your ‘People’s Garden Initiative’ Once They Have Access to Resources for Growing”

Lila Cassinari, 15, Farmington High School, Farmington, Conn.: “Fueling the Future: A Student’s Right to Eat”

Lola Babinski, 15, Lyons Township High School, Western Springs, Ill.: “Normalize Noise-Cancelling”

Lucas Rounds, 15, Open World Learning, Saint Paul, Minn.: “An Open Letter to Millionaires Who Hold Our Healthcare Hostage, and the American Healthcare System”

Qiming Yang, 18, Emma Willard School, Troy, N.Y.: “An Open Letter to High School Educators: The Case for Home Economics”

Nathan Yam, 14, International Christian School, Hong Kong: “Nuclear Power Is Safer and Greener Than You Think: A Letter to Greenpeace”

Ngoc Linh Nguyen, 17, Vinschool Smart City, Hanoi, Vietnam: “Tote Overload: A Letter to Cotton Tote Bag Users”

Nickohli Beiersdorf, 17, James E. Dottke Project-Based Learning High School, West Allis, Wis.: “A Letter to the Metal Community (From a Metalhead)”

Paula Garcia Moreno Caraza, 17, Instituto Mexicano Regina, Mexico City,: “An Open Letter to Mexico’s Undecided Voters”

Santiago Vira, 17, Brooklyn Technical High School, Brooklyn, N.Y.: “To the 3-D Printing Industry, Let’s Fix This”

Sophia Tsien, 17, Bergen County Technical High School, Teterboro, N.J.: “Dear Congress: Let the China Initiative Rot”

Vale Kerns, 18, Arlington Career Center, Arlington, Va.: “Health of a Nation”

Vanessa Moffett, 15, James Lopez, 16, Emma and Grace, Bernards High School, Bernardsville, N.J.: “Peaking at 16: Unregulated Competitive Sports Are Breaking Children’s Bodies and Minds”

Xinyi (Cindy) Zeng, 15, Milton Academy, Milton, Mass.: “(An Unapologetically Pink) Letter to the National Speech and Debate Association on Gender Bias in Debate”

如果你喜欢这次比赛，还可以在今年夏天加入我们另一场比赛：我们的第15届年度夏季阅读比赛

Winner

Daphne Nguyen, 16, from San Jose, Calif., responded to a June news item, “Costco Plans to Stop Selling Books Year-Round,” by writing:

I like books, and I also like Costco. Like many of us, I spend time with both of them regularly. I carry a paperback so I can stop looking at my phone, even during our weekly Costco run.

So I was genuinely disconcerted to read that “Costco Plans to Stop Selling Books Year-Round” and offer them only during the holiday season. I guess books are a nice gift for someone else, but not something you’d want for yourself?

Or for your children? In fact, the Costco book section is thoughtfully curated for the entire shopping family. There are “My Busy Book” play sets, special C.S. Lewis box sets, and best sellers like “Fourth Wing” by Rebecca Yaros. The aisle feels fun and inviting, not dated or out of place.

Costco says that books are inconvenient to sell because they have to be specially unpacked off the pallet and changed out weekly for new releases. That seems like the “it’s not you, it’s me” break-up routine. And it seems like a cop-out. They’ve got plenty of people buzzing around doing all kinds of things — what about the staffers constantly refolding clothes?

Costco’s ingenuity shines with the $6 rotisserie chicken. Why not get creative with books? Put Oprah’s top picks at the check-out lines! Surprise us with cookbooks around the food aisles!

What Costco stocks is what America buys. So Costco, don’t give on America as a nation of readers, educated citizens of a democracy. And please don’t give up on books.

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三个最喜欢的视频回应

Andrew Han on “Don’t Call It an ‘Ethnic’ Grocery Store”

Chrisel Roche on “How 3 Texas Teenagers Grew Up to Be Broadway Stars (and Stayed Friends)”

Gabriela Abeyta on “At This School, Students Live Entirely for Music”

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