Scholastic Art & Writing Awards recognize work of area students
For 22 years, students at high schools and middle schools in Washington, Greene and Fayette counties have been recognized for their work in art and writing.
The latest Scholastic Art and Writing Awards of Southwestern Pennsylvania ceremony to honor their achievements was held Feb. 16 at PennWest California University’s Steele Auditorium.
PennWest California, which provides financial support for the competition, has been the home of the program since 2009. The program began in 2002 at Waynesburg University.
“We’ve been busy ever since,” said Janice Hatfield, co-director of the program who also serves on the board of the English Education Collaborative at PennWest California. “It’s been a pleasant journey to encourage a lot of kids to practice their artistic skills.”
In January, students from the three counties in grades seven through 12 submitted more than 300 pieces of writing and art to the regional competition.
Art judges awarded 18 Gold Keys, 26 Silver Keys and 66 Merit Awards. Middle school students were awarded two Gold Keys, four Silver Keys and 11 Merits.
Writing judges awarded 17 Gold Keys, 33 Silver Keys and 32 Merit Awards. Middle school writers received three Golds, 12 Silvers and 16 Merit Awards.
Winners are selected by a panel of judges from various organizations representing art and writing.
Anyone who earns a Gold Key receives $100 for each award from the university and is eligible for a national award. That judging will be held in late March in New York City. Hatfield said as many as 300,000 entries from 42 states will be submitted.
“Students who win a Gold Key in our regional competition, those pieces are sent to New York for additional judging,” said Hatfield, also a retired educator from West Greene High School. “There’s a three-day celebration in New York City. Some of our students have attended in the past. There’s an exhibit of the Gold Keys. Then, there’s a ceremony in Carnegie Hall for the Gold Key winners.”
Also, up to five Gold Key winners are selected for the highest distinction of American Vision and American Voice nominees, one of whom will be awarded an American Vision or American Voice award.
American Vision nominees for art are Donata Lancaster, Uniontown Area High School, painting; Sienna Heasley, Trinity High School, drawing; Madison Kreuzer, Canon-McMillan High School, sculpture; Christie Dzurinko, Charleroi Area High School, ceramics, and Ze Zhou Li, a home-schooled student from Vanderbilt, painting.
Heasley, a senior, has been submitting entries into the art portion of the competition since she was in seventh grade. She received five individual Gold Keys and two portfolio Gold Keys. Heasley won on the national level as a high school freshman and sophomore.
“It’s a really good opportunity to submit everything I’ve worked on throughout the year to one competition and see where it goes,” Heasley said. “It’s nice to see that what I’m working on is being seen (winning an award) is icing on the cake, a nice cherry on top of everything. It makes me feel a little confident to win something like that, but it makes me feel good either way, whether I win or not. ”
Heasley’s drawing, “October Choir,” is an American Vision nominee.
“That was done as an observational piece I did at school,” she said. “I sat in the choir room for about three weeks and I was just drawing people as I saw them.”
American Voice nominees are Li, poetry, and fellow home-schooled students Ella Prisk from Eighty-Four, short story, and Yunuo Zhang from Canonsburg, critical essay, as well as Isabella Falcone of Belle Vernon Area Middle School, short story, and Leah Pounds of Ringgold High School, short story.
Falcone is one of two Belle Vernon Middle School students awarded Gold Keys in writing, along with Noah Spedaliere, who was awarded for his dramatic script.
“This is part of (my students) course requirement,” said Carol Frow, who teaches an advanced English course at Belle Vernon Area Middle School. “They have to enter the contest. I want them to explore different genres. This is a way to get them to try out different styles of writing.”
Frow is in her first year on the board of directors but has been sending students to the competition for about two decades.
‘It allows them to write creatively,” Frow said. “Most schools don’t have creative writing programs anymore. Most of our state testing is more essay-structured, so our students don’t get creative writing outlets as they used to get in schools. So, I love that Scholastic provides that opportunity for them.”
Those who earn national Scholastic Awards are considered for scholarships at 50 universities, including such notable schools as Bard College, Rochester Institute of Technology, Syracuse University and the University of Michigan. Locally, Carnegie Mellon and Chatham University offer scholarships.