Nearly 340,000 works were submitted for the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards this year. Only 2,700 students nationwide received national medals and two of those students are from Lake Washington School District (LWSD). Redmond High School junior Marina Chen won medals for two of her works. She earned a gold medal for her poetry entry entitled Final Sermon and a silver for her poem Backwards Stages. Kaaviya Uthirapandian, eighth grader at Evergreen Middle School, received a silver medal for The Golden Locket in the Dramatic Script category. 

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are the nation’s longest-running and most prestigious recognition program for creative teens in grades 7–12. National Medalists and their educators are celebrated at the National Ceremony at Carnegie Hall in New York City in June.

Students throughout Washington state first submitted their works to the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards to Cornish College in Seattle. Artists who received a Gold Key for their entries were then judged on the national scale. Cornish College hosted an award presentation on Saturday, March 16 on the school’s main campus. Students receiving national medals were notified on Wednesday, March 13. 

The following students from LWSD earned recognition in this year’s regional awards through Cornish College:

Art

• Nicole Birova, junior, Redmond High School    
  • Honorable Mention, Drawing and Illustration, Freedom Along the Streets
  • Honorable Mention, Painting, Beauty of the Sea
  • Silver Key, Drawing and Illustration, Seattle Still Life
  • Silver Key, Mixed Media, Self
• Alexandra Davidoff, junior, International Community School    
  • Honorable Mention, Painting, Wernher von Braun
• Casey Yang, senior, Eastlake High School    
  • Honorable Mention, Drawing and Illustration, Self Portrait (Pencil Drawing)
  • Silver Key, Painting, Utensils
  • Honorable Mention, Drawing and Illustration, Diamond
  • Honorable Mention, Drawing and Illustration, Self Portrait (Water color and Pencil)
  • Honorable Mention, Painting, Ahppa (Dad)
  • Honorable Mention, Mixed Media, Box Reflection
  • Honorable Mention, Mixed Media, Drooling Luxury
  • Honorable Mention, Drawing and Illustration, Self Portrait (Charcoal)
  • Gold Key, Painting, Antelope
• Eileen Zhang, junior, Redmond High School    
  • Silver Key, Photography, Lost Saints in St. Petersburg
  • Key, Photography, Soul And Mind
  • Honorable Mention, Digital Art, Split-second
  • Silver Key, Photography, These Fragments Of Mirrors
• Muyan Zhou, junior, Lake Washington High School    
  • Gold Key, Drawing and Illustration, Guardian
  • Silver Key, Drawing and Illustration, The Distance Between Us

Writing

• Marina Chen, junior, Redmond High School    
  • Silver Key, Poetry, Atonement
  • Honorable Mention, Poetry, Ginger Smoothie in the Morning
  • Honorable Mention, Poetry, The Middle
  • Honorable Mention, Poetry, CHICK!
  • Honorable Mention, Poetry, Sixteen
  • Gold Key, Poetry, Final Sermon
  • Gold Key, Poetry, Backwards Stages in a Universal Rediscovery
• Madeleine Goertz, sophomore, International Community School    
  • Honorable Mention, Poetry, Tailgating
  • Gold Key, Poetry, Thank You
• Athena Ho, junior, International Community School    
  • Silver Key, Poetry, Hunger
• Rohan Iyer, freshman, Tesla Stem High School    
  • Silver Key, Humor, Job Application
  • Silver Key, Journalism, Harvard Affirmative Action Lawsuit
  • Honorable Mention, Humor, Fantasiara RPG
• Shrima Narasimhan, eighth grade, Evergreen Middle School    
  • Silver Key, Science Fiction/Fantasy, The Learned and the Learnt
• Adithi Raghavan, junior, International Community School    
  • Honorable Mention, Poetry, a name as common as mine
  • Gold Key, Poetry, a peacock and chukar wed under a banyan tree
• Aneesha Ramesh, junior, International Community School    
  • Silver Key, Critical Essay, Sexism in Shame: A Psychoanalytical Approach to Understanding the Definition of Shame in American Society
• Kaaviya Uthirapandian, eighth grade, Evergreen Middle School    
  • Gold Key, Dramatic Script, The Golden Locket
• Eileen Zhang, junior, Redmond High School    
  • Honorable Mention, Science Fiction/Fantasy, In the Orange Half-Light