Creativity on Display: Artists and Writers Shine with Scholastic Awards

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards program is the longest-running, most prestigious recognition program for creative teens in the U.S. Nineteen Dana Hall students stood out from thousands of entries, and received regional awards and honorable mentions in ceramics and glass, conceptual, installation & participatory art, drawing, illustration, jewelry, mixed media, painting, photography, portfolio category (art), critical essay, flash fiction, personal essay & memoir, poetry, and short story.

Scholastic Art Awards

Gold Key

E. Barnes ’28, Photography (4), “Sovereign,” “Weeping Willow,” “Entangled” and “TeeOff Triptych”
S. Che ’27, Jewelry (3), “The Guillotine,” “Speak Softly to Me” and “Skeleton of an Echo”
Che, Photography, “Polishing Time”
A. Dong ’28, Mixed Media, “Keep Squeezing”
I. Haferd ’27, Illustration, “Nordic colorwave”
S. Huang ’27, Drawing, “Jing”
E. Kang ’26, Mixed Media, “Obesity or Scarcity”
K. Lee ’26, Painting, “Choice Made in the Midst of Apocalypse”

Silver Key

Barnes, Photography (2), “Around the Back to Eden” and “102º”
Che, Drawing, “My Heroine”
Che, Jewelry, “Wild Fringe”
Dong, Mixed Media, “Something Fishy…”
A. Kim ’26, Mixed Media, “Our Woods”
Q. Wu ’28, Mixed Media, “out fishin’”

Honorable Mention

Barnes, Photography (2), “Jaden” and “L'homme Pensant”
Che, Conceptual, Installation & Participatory Art, “A Room of One’s Own”
Che, Illustration, “Dual Gaze”
Che, Mixed Media, “The Little Tree Who Stumbled Into the Midnight Ball”
Che, Photography, “A Season of Knitting”
Huang, Drawing, “Open wide”
Huang, Photography (2), “Sky Full of Stars” and “Orange Hues”
Kang, Mixed Media, “Stuck”
Kang, Portfolio Category (Art), “Forming The Self”
Y. Mao ’28, Ceramics & Glass, “Raven”
Wu, Illustration, “lobsta”

Scholastic Writing Awards

Gold Key

J. Huang ’28, Poetry, “Winter in the Barn Still Aches Like This”
M. Pantelides Sola ’27, Poetry, “Little Confessions/Little Sins”
P. Wei ’27, Poetry (2), “Self Portrait as Catholic Mirror” and “My Mother Has Been Out of Shape Since Pregnancy and I am to Blame”

Silver Key

N. Cao ’27, Critical Essay, “Staggered Starting Lines: Why Affirmative Action At The Collegiate Level Matters”
R. Du ’28, Critical Essay, “A Comparative Analysis of Profit-Driven and Non-Driven Economies”
Y. Mao ’28, Poetry, “I Can’t Fit Lunar New Year in My Suitcase”
Pantelides Sola, Flash Fiction, “Happy Birthday”
G. Ramaswamy ’27, Poetry (2), “College Essay Draft #17” and “Heirloom Tomatoes”
A. Sung ’27, Critical Essay, “Art of Discomfort: Navigating the Sexualization of Innocence in Balthus’s Thérèse Dreaming”
Wei, Poetry (5), “鱼血Fish Blood,” “Nu Linguistics,” “I Fail My Math Test, Hence,” “Moonful” and “Personification”

Honorable Mention

W. Burgos ’27, Personal Essay & Memoir, “An Ode to Every Letter that I’ve Discarded”
Burgos, Short Story, “A Testament to Glory and Pain: Stories From the Great Below”
Che, Poetry, “Dirtborne”
Ramaswamy, Poetry, “Last March”
Wei, Poetry (4), “Unparented Rituals,” “I asked ChatGPT if I would love it if it were a human,” “Before the Water Turns Red” and “Outside+Male”

Work is judged on originality, technical skill and emergence of a personal voice or vision. All Gold Key entries are automatically considered for national medals, which are announced later in the spring.

Top image: “Choice Made in the Midst of Apocalypse” by K. Lee ’26