Hyde-Tuckerman: NCS’s Oldest Storytelling Tradition

Once every fall, when students walk into Washington National Cathedral expecting hymns, homilies, and scripture readings, they are excited to learn that this is instead the surprise Hyde-Tuckerman service.

A tradition of more than 100 years, the Hyde-Tuckerman extemporaneous writing competition invites students to spend 45 minutes authoring an original piece. Sprawled out across every nook and cranny in the Cathedral Nave, laying on marble and clad with green notebooks, students write about whatever comes to mind when they hear the theme assigned by the English department.

This school year, the topic was becoming, and students wrote their pieces in the All Hallows Amphitheater due to COVID-19 mitigation policies.

“We try to come up with an idea that has multiple meanings and that is concise—usually one word or phrase. The idea is to give students a variety of jumping off places,” says Upper School English teacher Tony Speranza, who chaired the department for eight years. “I think the students feel the sense that the activity connects them to generations of NCS students going back over 100 years,” he says.

Awarded to an Upper School student, the Hyde—established in 1914 by the first treasurer and former trustee of the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation, Thomas Hyde—is the school’s oldest prize. In 1932, Edith Abercrombie Miller Tuckerman, a member of NCS's first graduating class, established the Tuckerman prize in honor of her daughter, Laura Wolcott Tuckerman Triest 1929. This award is presented to a Middle School student.

In the Upper School, the English department reviews and selects a few of the strongest compositions as finalists. Students then read the anonymous pieces and vote on their favorite to decide the winner. The Hyde recipient is later announced at the annual Writer’s Day assembly in April. In the Middle School, English teachers review the pieces and select a winner, which is also announced at an assembly.

In recent years, the Lower School has been included in the tradition. English teachers select and read a couple compositions from each grade. "It is exciting for the younger students to have an opportunity to participate in this long-running, schoolwide tradition,” says Lower School English teacher Karin Anderson. “Being given the time and opportunity to free-write on a chosen topic, particularly when the entire school is convened together in the majestic Washington National Cathedral, is a profound and exciting experience for the Lower School kids."

This spring, the English department presented the Hyde Prize to Stella-Grace Ford ’23 for her work, “I’m Sorry,” in which she examines intersecting identities. Ford writes: I’m sorry for daring to think that I don’t owe you a label or an identity for you to neatly pack me away in your pantry alongside your cans of fruit and shut the door so you’ll never have to see me again.

Describing her piece, she says, “I’m a queer woman, so I wrote it about becoming a woman in today’s society, some of the homophobia that I’ve faced in more discreet forms and how that intersects with my womanhood.” Expressing how she feels about joining the elite group of Hyde Prize winners, Ford says, “Writing at NCS is so prestigious, in general. It’s such an honor.”

In the Middle School, Julia Mumford ‘26 won the Tuckerman Prize for her piece, “Becoming,” named for the prompt. She writes: What I am in this moment, / what I have become: / uncertain. / Two years of it, / optimism / melted away until / my white bones / peek through-- / I am not a shell / hiding what’s inside: / I am a / pearl, / dirty, / hidden / but still a perfect sphere.

“My piece was meant to tell my story over the past two years: how the pandemic has changed me, for better and for worse and, at the end of the day, who I have become because of it,” says Mumford. “I am glad that winning the Tuckerman means I can share my writing with the NCS community—I hope people see a little bit of themselves in my words.” Ford and Mumford join a long list of talented NCS storytellers.

Since its founding in 1900, NCS has committed itself to providing exceptional writing education. Beginning in 4th grade, teachers encourage students to write with clarity and precision. “By the time students graduate, they’re all good writers,” says Speranza.

“The Hyde-Tuckerman Prizes represent not just our commitment to a rigorous writing education but also the way in which we hold writing and the process of creating as something sacred—a way to write ourselves into our communities.” says Middle School English teacher Adison Lax. “The Prizes and the experience of writing together in the Cathedral reflect the way we value and honor student expression and student voices.”