Junior Audrina Wong took first place in nonfiction in the Bennington College Young Writers Awards.  

High school students from around the world are invited to submit to the contest. There were 4,500 entries this year in three categories: poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Winners were announced on April 21. 

Audrina's piece, “Hands Against Entropy,” is about her maternal grandmother. 

“This idea came to me during a conversation with my older sister about what it means to be a first-generation student,” Audrina said. “I chose to write about this topic because attending Loomis — a place so far from my home in Hong Kong — constantly reminds me of the opportunities many in my family, especially the women, never had.” 

Audrina’s piece includes a description from the many years her grandmother worked “in the back corner of a cha chaan teng ... among all that chaos, Popo’s 4-foot, 8-inch frame was elbow-deep in steaming water, forearms red and shiny, skin across her knuckles looking like paper that had been left in the rain. She scrubbed until the bowls came back the color of bone. She scrubbed until the knives dulled and the rags frayed.” A cha chaan teng is a Hong Kong-style cafe or diner.  

In the story, the reader finds out that all that work took its toll on her grandmother’s hands: “Years of water, detergents, and scrubbing abrade friction ridges; chemicals swell, then dry the skin; the stratum corneum [outermost layer of the epidermis of the skin] thins. Little by little, the ridges that tell the world who you are can smooth out.”   

Audrina said junior Aidan Dobsch and English teacher Steve Colgate helped her in the process. 

“This was the longest personal essay I’ve ever written, and it felt both challenging and fun compared to the analytical essays I typically write for English class,” she said. “One of my biggest takeaways was the importance of having a trusted reader review my work. I realized that what feels clear to me, because it’s my own story, isn’t always immediately clear to someone else.” 

What is clear is the impact her grandmother had on Audrina. 

“When someone finishes reading my piece,” Audrina said, “I hope they reflect on what it means to honor their ancestors and the people who came before them, whose sacrifices and choices made their lives possible.” 

Bennington College, on its website, says it has given many of the nation’s foremost writers their start, including 12 Pulitzer Prize winners and three U.S. poet laureates. 

Audrina's piece: “Hands Against Entropy.”