Senior Wins in Cleveland Clinic eXpressions Competition

Senior Wins Blue Ribbon in Cleveland Clinic eXpressions™ Competition

Melissa Brodsky ’12 has a keen interest in medical topics, but also has a well-honed artistic and literary side. That combination of interests worked to make Melissa a winner in the 2012 Cleveland Clinic eXpressions™, a program using art to engage Northeast Ohio high school students in the field of scientific research. Melissa found out last week that she won the highest honor, a Blue Ribbon, for a poem she wrote about a patient adapting to life after the installation of a pacemaker. The art and language category had more than 1,000 submissions.

Her poem is titled "Where Is My Heart” and Melissa wrote it as part of her AP Literature and Composition class taught by English Department Chair Mrs. Michelle Kelly-Flanagan. Judges evaluated submissions based on interpretation, presentation, creativity and initiative.

"I chose to format my poem in a very different way. I shifted the placement of the words and the divisions of the paragraphs so they represented the patient’s journey after learning that a pacemaker had to be implanted to save his life,” shared Melissa, who has already been accepted to the University of Toledo. She plans to study bioengineering with a pre-med focus.

"I was so excited when I found out I had won a Blue Ribbon!” she stated.

Each Blue Ribbon winner will receive a $100 gift card. Ribbon-winning work will be featured in a publication of all the award-winning submissions, and will also be included in an eXpressions™ eXhibition.