The Scholastic Writing and Arts Awards began in 1923 to award and recognize creative high school students in the arts and writing fields. The awards program is available to grades 7-12, for public school, private school, and homeschooled students. Students can apply for 29 different categories, including, painting, photography, architecture, digital art, poetry, humor (writing), and journalism.
Along with the great prestige of the awards, there are a wide arrangement of alumni, including artist Andy Warhol, writers Sylvia Plath and Truman Capote, and actor Lena Dunham, and fashion designer Zac Posen. In 2015, to recognize the alumni of the awards, the inaugural Alumni Council was created.
Along with the many famous alumni of the awards, many have served as judges, including Robert Frost and Judy Blume. Judges look for “originality, technical skill, and the emergence of personal voice or vision” (Scholastic Art and Writing Awards) in the works they judge.
Five Malden High School students won an award for Scholastic. Silver Key winners include seniors Yixi Huang, Ziqi Zeng, junior Karen Poon, and sophomore Qian Deng. Junior Joanna Tang won a gold key.
Zeng's explained,"Gold and Silver Key pieces are often rich with artist's technique or show complex ideas.” she added, “It's an honor to receive such important recognition for [her] work." Zeng's piece that was awarded was a "charcoal drawing [she] did for Halloween last year.” “[Zeng] was a little surprised at first because [she] didn’t expect that piece to win out of the others [she] had submitted, but when [she] had time to process it, [she] was really excited and proud.”
Huang “was quite surprised when [he] heard this news. He mentioned that he “tried [his] best on that piece, and lots of effort plus extra time was used [so] it was rewarding.”
This is Poon’s first year studying in America, and is very glad to have had this opportunity to participate in this event. Winning a Silver Key award “motivated [her] to create [more] art, and to think of [her] college art career.”
