Scholastic Art and Writing Awards Needs Writing Judges

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards aims to recognize and encourage the most talented young artists and writers in the United States and American schools abroad. The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, a nonprofit organization, presents the awards and offers opportunities for recognition, exhibition, publication, and scholarships.

The awards program has been running since 1923. It is considered the nation's longest-running and most prestigious recognition program for creative teens—the Alliance partners with the National Art Education Association and nearly 100 Regional Affiliates nationwide.

The awards program judges submissions based on three core values: Originality, Technical skill, and Emergence of a personal voice or vision.

Professionals in Writing, Language Arts, and related fields are encouraged to apply to judge the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards of the Massachusetts Region, organized by the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University. We look for judges to have a passion for writing, a related background, a desire to foster creativity in today's youth, and a willingness to judge a wide range of categories. Please be aware that this is a short-term volunteer position.

If selected as a writing judge, you will create an account at the Scholastic portal, where you will read and score work. You will also receive some training information to review before starting to judge. Our judging for the Massachusetts region writing occurs between December 6th and January 11th. Judges must have access to a computer and the internet over that time and be able to commit to working independently for about 20 hours on reading and scoring the entries. Work is accessed and scored via a website. We encourage anyone considering serving as a judge to carefully review their schedules, especially since the judging period spans the holiday season. We also encourage judges to pace themselves with reading and scoring as much as possible and not leave the bulk of reading and scoring to the last week or weekend. Judges must participate in check-ins to monitor progress.

Please email with WRITING JUDGE in the subject line. Express your interest in being a judge, and you will receive an application to submit. We will have a rolling acceptance for judges, but hope to have all our judges on board by the end of November. You should hear back in approximately a week.

Please email with WRITING JUDGE in the subject line. Express your interest in being a judge, and you will receive an application to submit. We will have a rolling acceptance for judges, but hope to have all our judges on board by the end of November. You should hear back in approximately a week.

December 01, 2025

Founded in 1876, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University is a unique art school affiliated with both a major art museum—the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston—and a Tier-1 research university. Originally established within the museum, the school began its relationship with Tufts when the university began providing accredited degrees to SMFA students in 1945. SMFA officially became part of Tufts University's School of Arts and Sciences in July 2016. SMFA at Tufts provides an exceptional fine arts education that allows students to craft individualized programs of study while being mentored closely by world-renowned faculty and staff. Graduates are creative thinkers and problem-solvers who succeed in a wide variety of careers. SMFA at Tufts is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD). For more information, visit