Robert Gao, a Uni High senior, won the National Student Poetry Awards recently. The National Student Poet award is given annually to five high schoolers across the country. Gao was one of the five who won this year, being recognized nationally for his passion in poetry.
Gao said thousands of high schoolers across the country submit poetry pieces to the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. From that pool, 80 people are selected as semi-finalists to submit more work. Five winners are chosen nationally from the different geographical regions of the U.S. Gao won the National Student Poet Award in the Midwest.
There has been a rumour within Uni that Gao met President Biden, as he had been in Washington D.C. to attend the National Student Poetry Appointment Ceremony and winning the award included a paid trip to the US Capitol. He wanted to make it clear that this was not true, stating that he unfortunately did not get the chance to meet the Bidens as they had been out of town visiting the Amazon rainforest while Gao visited D.C. However, he did manage to get a tour of the White House, stating that it was a very nice building.
Gao also wanted to give a shout-out and a thank you to everybody who supported him along the way, including his friends, family and Uni High faculty, especially English Teacher Matthew Mitchell, who he said played a key role in the development of his poetry.