EAGLE LAKE — Nadia Oian Vust was in her family’s living room in Eagle Lake one March day, compulsively checking her phone every 20 minutes for results of a national writing competition.
When the 18-year-old learned she’d won a gold medal, she cranked up some music and danced for joy to Frankie Valli and Louis Armstrong.
“I’m not a good dancer so it probably looked like I was in distress,” she said. “But it was a celebration.”
Oian Vust received recognition as part of the 102nd annual class of National Medalists in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards — the nation’s longest running and most prestigious program for creative teens in grades 7-12.
She is a former Mankato East High School student who now attends Perpich Arts High School in the metro; she completed her winning piece “Somewhere Further Than Space” in her short story writing class at Perpich.
“I just feel very honored to be recognized,” she said.
This year nearly 110,000 teens participated, entering more than 310,000 works for adjudication. Of the works entered, about 2,800 received national medals.
Esteemed alumni of the program include Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates and Andy Warhol, among others.
Naida’s “Somewhere Further Than Space” features a little girl who loses her dad. The work is based on Nadia’s own loss of her uncle Bill three years ago.
“It still feels like last week and it still feels like it was three years ago,” she said. “Writing is to me a way to process all of these feelings, just processing these large emotions.”
Kevin Lally, a Perpich literary arts instructor, has been Oian Vust’s teacher for the past two years. “I’m so happy that Nadia has received this well-earned recognition,” he stated in a news release. “Nadia has developed an incisive voice, with which she captures profound and complex human experiences with simple, accessible language.
“Her writing reveals a sensitivity about sense and loss within and among the bright moments of life. She opens doors where one might feel only loss, allowing in an exquisite beauty that manages to be both sad and hopeful, beautiful and human. It is not Nadia’s first honor and it certainly will not be her last.”
Her dad, Gary Oian Vust, said his daughter has always had a “flair for words.”
“I knew she loved to write and she would sit there every day and write stuff down,” he said. “She liked to do poetry and do stories and she would be telling me she was coming up with new ideas all the time. She’s been doing that for years. She’s got a real passion for writing.”
Her mom, Brenda Oian Vust, said Nadia’s winning piece touched her deeply.
“It was very moving, I thought,” she said. “I get choked up talking about it. She has the ability to draw in details and a sense of connecting in an emotional depth. It makes you feel a part of it and it’s a part of you.”
Nadia said she’s always been a writer, but she really dialed in to her craft during seventh grade “because of a fantastic teacher I had at Prairie Winds Middle School.”
Nadia was one of two Perpich students to receive a Scholastic award. Her Perpich principal, Rebecca Bullen, said their students create every day, developing their skills and exploring ways to express their personal voice.
“It’s exciting to see their hard work noticed at a national level,” she stated in the release. “These awards are something to be proud of.”
As for what’s next, as a senior in high school Nadia is laser focused on college. She is choosing between Mount Holyoke College and Oberlin College and Conservatory.
A celebration of 2025 national medalists in the writing competition will be in June in New York City.