Ariel Horton is our 2017 Poetry Promise Award Recipient!
About Ariel: I am an eighteen-year-old high school senior. I was born in Pasadena, California and I moved with my family to Henderson at the green age of five. Since my relocation, I have struggled: battling years of psychological disorder and the sudden death of my father, surmounting in overdose, hospitalization, and ongoing recovery. In my case, the pen has, indeed, been mightier than the pill bottle.
College has always been a priority to me, but high school has always been a struggle. Through wars both with myself and with a standardized, antiquated system, I have never had impressive grades or example attendance to offer as a testament to my passion for learning. Though I worked on my college applications for years in an attempt to overcompensate, I was only accepted into one institution, Whittier College: a small, private liberal arts school near Los Angeles. Despite this blow to my confidence, in the past few months, I have been immensely encouraged and deeply gratified by honors including a Gold Medal in the scholastic art and writing awards and this, the Poetry Promise award, and I feel, perhaps for the first time, worthy of pursuing my art. As I carry on to Whittier, I will pursue a degree in creative writing and begin working to bridge the gap between aspiring writer and professional writer. I know that I will thrive in the small classes and liberal arts curriculum at Whittier, and I will use this new environment to my advantage to continue to foster my skills as a young poet.
