Students win 2024 Teen Media Award

Fox Chapel Area High School juniors Rodrigo Silva (left) and Akshay Lath were named second-place winners for their short film in the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh’s 2024 Ralph Munn Creative Writing and Teen Media Awards.

Fox Chapel Area High School juniors Akshay Lath and Rodrigo Silva were named winners in Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh’s 2024 Ralph Munn Creative Writing and Teen Media Awards. Akshay and Rodrigo were awarded second place in the short film category for their submission, “The Hill District: A History of Jazz.”

“The sheer talent showcased in this year’s entries is truly inspiring,” said Simon Rafferty, library services supervisor – STEAM Learning. “We are so grateful that these brave young artists chose to share their work with us.”

Kizuwanda Raines, also of STEAM Learning, praised this year’s entries saying, “These teens are so inspiring and have motivated me to try my hand at something!”

The contest, sponsored by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, was open to all high school students in grades 9-12 across Allegheny County. More than 300 submissions were received in the categories of poetry, short prose, cover art design, short film, music, photography, 3D art, 2D art and fashion, and a total of 28 first-place, second-place and honorable mention winners were named in the categories.

The winning entries in poetry, prose and works of art are on display at the main library in Oakland through September. The entries of the winners and others are also published in an anthology, which is distributed to all public libraries in Allegheny County. This year, 43 teens had their poetry and prose published.

All of the winners were recognized for their creative content at a reception during the library’s end-of-summer extravaganza.