Eight Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) students have received certificates for superior writing in the 2013 Achievement Awards in Writing by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). For 2013, 753 high school juniors were nominated; of that group, 155 were selected to receive Certificates of Recognition, including nine students from Virginia.

The FCPS winners are:

• Ben Familiant, Robinson Secondary School

• Emma Hastings and Anwar Omeish, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology

• Jei-Si Ang, Annie Fuller, and Emma Spillman, West Springfield High School

• Jimmy McLaughlin and Megan Schiffres, Woodson High School.

The annual competition requires each nominee to submit two pieces of writing that were judged on content, purpose, audience, tone, word choice, organization, development and style. Students were challenged to submit a sample considered as his or her best work plus a written piece based on the 2013 theme “Personal Mount Rushmore.”