The Westford Academy counseling department sent out an email to the class of 2027 on Thursday, Jan. 29 announcing that the junior class will now have to fill out a Google form in order to be considered for each Junior Book Award.
The decision was made after Walpole High School shared their book award process with the WA counseling department. According to counselor Susan Lynch, the purpose of the change was to increase awareness of the book award program and allow students to nominate themselves for awards they believe are a good fit for them.
Junior Book Awards are given to extraordinary students in 11th grade by various universities in partnership with their specific high school. There are 26 awards that WA juniors will be considered for, including the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Medal, the Brown University Book Award, and the Johns Hopkins Book Award.
In previous years, a committee consisting of representatives from each university alongside WA staff would nominate juniors with no input from the class. Students would not be notified about the awards until the winners were announced at the Junior Awards Ceremony, which typically takes place in early June.
This year, students will fill out a form sent via email by the guidance department and posted on the Class of 2027 Counseling Google Classroom. The form lists each award alongside the criteria a student must meet to be eligible for it. If the student meets the criteria, they may select “Yes” on the form. A student does not need to select “Yes” if they do not want to be considered for the award, even if they meet the requirements.
“I like that it’s on a Google form because it makes the application much more efficient. It’s a lot simpler and easier to manage, in my opinion,” junior Sherry Ye said.
At the end of the form, students are required to write a paragraph describing why they feel they are a good fit for the awards they selected.
“The paragraph allows students to highlight their strengths and areas of involvement at WA and beyond,” Lynch said.
In addition to the paragraph, the form states students may also either complete the required activity section in SCOIR or upload a current resume to their drive in SCOIR.
Senior Sabah Chatiwala, who won the Dartmouth University book award last year, believes that this is a positive change to the program.
“The issue with awards at WA is that it’s based a lot on student-teacher relationships, and not all students have those relationships,” Chatiwala said. “Teachers can’t see everything, so having people apply themselves is a much better way to get more students to participate.”
Winners of the 2025-2026 school year Junior Book Awards will be announced at the Junior Awards Ceremony in the Performing Arts Center on Monday, June 8.