What HooverCodes is, what went wrong, and the lessons a 14-year-old founder learned from it. — My name is Shaams Nur and I’m a rising sophomore at Hoover High School. One day in the fall of 2019, my friends and I were eating lunch and reminiscing on the good ole days of elementary school, back when we didn’t have to think about our GPAs and AP…

by Shaams Nur | Grade 9 | Scholastic 2019 Short Story Silver Key — You crouch with your back against that new curb, listening to grunts as neon streaks fly, keeping score for your teammates, your arms around your knees. But as you watch Maxwell toss the tennis ball a little too gracefully and hit a serve onto the deuce side of the court…

by Shaams Nur | Grade 10 | Scholastic 2021 Short Story Silver Key — I wake up, right temple throbbing, my back against the floor, a crowd of worried Black Friday shoppers hovering around me. A six foot six black man with a full “James Harden” beard towers over me. His traps bulge through a dense, trench coat and his jawline is sharper than…

by Shaams Nur | Grade 10 | Scholastic 2021 Flash Fiction Gold Key — “Ready?” the nurse asks. You swipe left again — the perfect shade of brown. You confirm your selection, and the nurse leads you down a hallway to your augmentation room. You notice her thick, jet black hair is the exact color and texture you requested for yourself. …

“Ready?” the nurse asks. — “Ready?” the nurse asks. You swipe left again — the perfect shade of brown. You confirm your selection, and the nurse leads you down a hallway to your augmentation room. You notice her thick, jet-black hair is the exact color and texture you requested for yourself. …

I’m Shaams Nur, a 9th grader from Birmingham, Alabama. My goal during quarantine is to experiment with 15 study methods over the next 100… — Week 15 Day 6 — Speed Reading This is the last weekly article of my 100 Days of Productivity project. It’s bittersweet seeing my first 100-day project come to an end, but I look forward to doing more of this type of project in the future. This week, I studied…

I’m Shaams Nur, a 9th grader from Birmingham, Alabama. My goal during quarantine is to experiment with 15 study methods over the next 100… — Today I continued using speed reading. I couldn’t find any advantages to using this method and I genuinely don’t like the idea of speed reading. Please feel free to leave…

I’m Shaams Nur, a 9th grader from Birmingham, Alabama. My goal during quarantine is to experiment with 15 study methods over the next 100… — Today is Thursday, meaning it’s mid-week reflection day! As I’ve said before, the only apparent benefit of this method is that you can easily take in tons of information in a small amount of time. However, if you read too fast, you might not be able to comprehend the information…

I’m Shaams Nur, a 9th grader from Birmingham, Alabama. My goal during quarantine is to experiment with 15 study methods over the next 100… — Today I continued using speed reading. I haven’t really found any advantages of using this method, other than the fact that you can quickly take in lots of information. Please…