The Scholastic Writing & Art Awards gets almost 340,000 entries from students across Canada and the U.S. every year, with as little as 7% of the entries being recognized for the highest award the competition offers: the Gold Medal. Top winners of the competition become eligible for up to $12,5000 worth of scholarships.
Three Cy Woods students were selected as some of the few to win this award: Junior Evan Lorenzo and seniors Eleri Young and Daanya Khalid all submitted nationally winning pieces.
Along with winning a Gold Medal, Khalid was also awarded $2,5000.
Khalid’s winning piece depicted her and her father sharing headphones, which symbolized their shared love for music, something that brought their relationship closer together when it was strained.
“We didn’t have the best relationship, but we both connected through music because we both had similar music tastes,” Khalid said. “That’s really how our bond strengthened.”
Khalid and her dad share a love for old 1980s music, bringing them closer together despite their cultural differences.
“He’s more traditional, like he grew up in Pakistan so he just grew up a different way than I did,” Khalid said. “But we both connected through music because I grew up listening to what he listened to.”
Khalid entered two pieces into the competition, with only one making it to the final level of judging.
“Both of them got awards for regionals, and then both of them went to compete for the national awards,” Khalid said. “Only one of them made it through though.”
Young was awarded a Gold Medal and an American Visions Medal for her photography work.
“One of my pieces was a portrait, like a silhouette,” Young said. “The other was of my step dad on the back of a dump truck.”
Young has been interested in photography since fifth grade when she began taking photos on her phone camera, later starting photography classes her freshman year. She gets much of her inspiration from surrealist artists, which she tried her best to channel into her winning pieces.
“I was really going for surrealism,” Young said. “Which is basically abstract interpretations of photography.”
Young was uncertain in her ability to win the competition.
“I had a bet with my stepdad where he said he bet $50 that I would place in the competition, and I said no, I wouldn’t,” Young said. “I got the $50.”
Lorenzo also received a Gold Medal at the national level.
Lorenzo’s winning piece was a collage of cutouts from various magazines, painting a picture of a child wearing a suit much too big for him.
“My piece that got the gold medal was called ‘Great Expectations,’ and it’s basically how, as a child, sometimes you can be pushed to grow up faster or expected to do things that you don’t want to have the capacity for,” Lorenzo said. “You’re just a little kid, and that’s why it’s a little kid with a big suit on that he doesn’t fit in, because he can’t take on that role that he’s expected to have.”
Another one of his pieces that was considered nationally was created with yard and graphite, a drawing of two girls with yarn surrounding them, as if they’re trapped. This piece signifies the suffocating feeling that often comes with getting closer with someone you may not actually want to become close with.
“I guess it’s about the paradox of how the closer you try to get to someone, the further you can end up pushing them,” Lorenzo said. “It’s one person reaching out and being overbearing, trying to hug the other, and the other person is overwhelmed and uncomfortable trying to push them away.”
His victory is pushing him to do even better next year.
“Winning was pretty exciting,” Lorenzo said. “I didn’t have high hopes in the beginning because I know there are a lot of really good artists, but being recognized for going above and beyond was really cool, and it made me want to try even harder next time.”
