(bright music) - So, everyone, welcome to WQED.

Thank you for coming today to celebrate our young writers.

I have been working on the Writers Contest for 10 years.

It's for kids kindergarten through third grade.

The contest encourages kids to write their own original story about what they think the future will be and what they will do.

- [Child] When I grow up, I hope to be a marine biologist.

- Once the deadline comes on March 31, we get all the stories.

We then take them down to Point Park University to the pre-service education teachers.

They narrow them down.

And after that, at WQED, we have a judging and pick the final winners.

First, second, third, and honorable mention for each grade.

You can see in front of you that there is the judging criteria worksheet.

We go around the table and read the finalists for each grade and choose first, second, third, and honorable mention.

- When I grew up, I want to be an architect.

- I love to ride horses.

- Once, there was a little girl named Gigi.

- I want to be as good as her one day.

- [Michelle] We invite educators, librarians, community partners.

- This is my eighth year here at the Writers Contest.

I absolutely love it.

- It's just so much fun to read these ideas that come out of these young minds.

- The kids are so creative.

- So many smart and intuitive kids.

- I think my future will be exciting.

- [Child] Because there will be flying cars and hoverboards.

- The idea of creativity and originality, it just kinda seeps through.

- Literacy leads to better communication skills, better retention skills, so if they start at a young age realizing how important it is to read and absorb these things and just keep learning, I think it's going to help them no matter what they wanna do.

- [Child 1] My future.

- [Child 2] Doggy dreams.

- [Child 3] In my future.

- [Child 4] I love work!

(children chattering) - Scientist too.

- When I grow up.

(bright music) - This morning we are gonna find out how you placed in the contest.

We have an official award ceremony announcing the winners.

First place Ameena.

(crowd clapping) It is very rewarding for them to see that they are a winner in the Writers Contest and we acknowledge the work that student has done.

(bright music) - Anything that you can do to create awareness for how important it is for kids to continue to write and be creative and give them an opportunity to share with their own community and their own schools.

I think that's a great opportunity that QED does here.

(bright music) - We have gone back and looked at some of the past writers and it was really exciting to see that a lot of them went into careers where they were writers.

They said the Writers Contest was something that gave me that confidence and let me know that that was something that I was good at.

- Life is a story ongoing and it's so important to be able to express one's ideas and if you can't express them, it's pretty hard to lift them.

- These are the kindergarten winners for 2025.

(crowd clapping) (bright music)