Elizabeth wrote “Patient Thirteen” as part of an outside class, and completed it in her free time. The story is set in a World War Four dystopian society with a very broken economy. The United States government offered a monthly paycheck to anyone willing to submit themselves to testing their newest formula that they had been working on, which was basically meant to reprogram a human to become a “perfect warrior.” An error in the formula caused the thirteenth patient, Oliver, to transform into something of a permanent Mr. Hyde.

“Through a twist of events and some DNA testing, (thank you, Dr. Brennan for teaching me all about genetics) one of the two doctors finds out that Patient Thirteen is, in fact, his relative,” Elizabeth explains. “Unfortunately, Oliver kills everyone, including him. Now completely a different creature, Oliver renames himself ‘Thirteen’ and becomes obsessed with patriotism, vowing to lead the middle and lower class into a rebellion.”

Elizabeth said she was incredibly surprised and honored when she found out she won a Silver Key Award. “I didn't believe that anything would ever come out of my submission, so realizing I had won was a shock,” Elizabeth said. “I cried a little, but that's only because I'm melodramatic.”

Although this short story was written on her own time, Elizabeth said she believes all of her IHA teachers have encouraged her creative side. “They’ve never been against any unusual or different approaches that I've had toward the subjects that they teach, and I appreciate that,” she noted. “It’s helped me become less apprehensive about thinking outside of the box, which ended up reflecting in my writing.”