Milton Academy offers its students a tremendous gift: to try myriad new activities and creative pursuits without pressure or fear, said Nicole Acheampong ’13, the speaker at the 46th annual Laurence S. Persky Memorial Awards. The awards honor the best work in student publications each school year.
“I had a lot of hobbies that I took very seriously,” Acheampong said of her time as a Milton student. “I’ve loved dance since I was young and I performed in the dance concert every year, took a dance elective, and was a member of Milton’s first-ever step team—and I did all of that even though I knew I wasn’t that good at dance or step. I did one of the school plays, in which I had the role of an unnamed old lady, who had maybe two lines. I sang in the gospel choir, and was very happy to sing as part of a crowd—definitely not as a soloist.
“I was OK with not excelling at these hobbies,” she continued. “That was one of my early instincts. If there was a creative activity that I admired, that I wanted to immerse myself in and try out, I did it. Not for the sake of being the best at it, but simply so that I could love it up close.”
Acheampong shared how trusting her instincts—advice she received from English Department faculty member Lisa Baker—and trying new creative pursuits informed her career. She has worked in magazines from Aperture to The Atlantic, and is now the digital editor at T: The New York Times Style Magazine. Journalism wasn’t part of her plan—she once believed that reporting was too clinical and rigid, and wanted a more creative field—until she spent time working on a thesis at Princeton that combined poetry with comparative literature and African studies. While researching in Senegal, Ghana, and France, she encountered artistic works that also served as historical records.
“I realized that gathering and recording the facts of something wasn’t necessarily a dry process,” she said. “Choosing which events to record, which details to include, and which voices to foreground or leave out entirely was in fact a deeply political act that said as much about the impulses of a writer as a poem or a short story.”
Following Acheampong’s remarks, Baker and Head of School Alixe Callen ’88 distributed this year’s Persky Awards:
Persky Awards for Excellence in Poetry and Fiction
Ruth Chen ’26, Magus Mabus
Aleena Fu ’27, Magus Mabus
Rue Tanzi ’26, Magus Mabus
Jason Yu ’25, Magus Mabus
Rebekah Fabella ’25, Magus Mabus
Adrienne Fung ’25, Magus Mabus
Persky Awards for Artwork Showcased in Student Publications
Ify Umerah ’25, Magus Mabus
Kailin Shi ’25, Magus Mabus
Isla Hamory ’26, Magus Mabus
Sydney Wilmot ’25, Magus Mabus
Felicity Wong ’25, F-Word
Matthew Li ’26, Magus Mabus
Rebekah Fabella ’25, Magus Mabus
Victoria Kirkham ’26, Magus Mabus
Persky Awards for Journalism and Academic Writing in Student Publications
Best Science Article
Sarina Miller ’26, Piece of Mind
Best News Writing
Jack Butterworth ’26, The Milton Paper
Darby Yang ’27, The Milton Measure and The Milton Paper
Best Non-Milton Feature
Adrienne Fung ’25, The Milton Measure
Best Milton Feature
Lucas Westphal ’25, The Milton Paper
Rebekah Fabella ’25, The Milton Measure
Best Editorial
The Milton Paper
The Milton Measure
Best Opinion Writing
Rhys Adams ’26, The Milton Paper
Best Opinion Article, Milton Topic
Caroline Blake ’25, The Milton Paper
Elizabeth Sim ’27, The Milton Measure
Best Sports Reporting
Molly O’Brien ’26, The Milton Paper
Best Sports Article
Jordan Munsey ’26, The Milton Measure
Best Arts Writing, Non-Milton Topics
Iko Lee ’26, The Milton Paper
Best Arts Writing, Milton Topics
Phoebe Zhang ’26, The Milton Paper
Best Arts Article
Phoebe Zhang ’26, The Milton Measure
Charles He ’26, The ARCH
Best Layout
Elizabeth Breen ’25, The Milton Paper
Yearbook Production
Andre Leung ’25, Henry Mannino ’26, and Sarah Price ’25
The Persky Awards were established to honor the memory of Laurence Persky ’79, a talented student writer who died just before his Class I year. Judged by Milton graduate and author Emily Franklin ’90 P ’17 ’22 ’25, as well as several faculty members, the awards recognize the best in student publications. Winners received copies of Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson, which was selected by Acheampong.
