“We believe that the pursuit of academic excellence in secondary schools should be given the same attention as the pursuit of excellence in sports and other extracurricular activities, and we have found that many students do exemplary work in history.”

     So reads the explanatory statement of the Concord Review. Being one of the single academic journals in the world that focuses on publishing secondary students’ (a.k.a. high schools) works, this competitive, high-ranking journal recently published the work of Emma Wexler ’16, making her an official author.    

     Wexler decided to publish her paper on Margaret Sanger – a renowned women’s right activist of the late 1800’s to early 1900’s –after it won the State award at the U.S History Day Competition.

     She says the idea of submitting her piece to the Concord Review was “low risk, high reward” and could possibly lead to an even greater accomplishment.

     Encouraged by her fellow college counselor Frank Sachs, she showed tremendous leadership and independence as she clicked the submit button on the Concord Review page. Looking back on the experience, Wexler urges fellow students to take the same steps she did. “If you are proud of a piece, you should publish it,” she says.

     When asked about what sort of impact this has had on her as an individual and as a student, she says it has cultivated her love of writing, especially in a research format. “I’m more interested in writing research papers just because I’ve kind of gone through the process before,” she elaborates. “It teaches you good skills, and there’s definitely a validation of that.”

     Starting with a paper written during sophomore year and culminating with national recognition, it’s safe to say taking that risk was well worth it.