The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards is a highly competitive annual art and writing competition, with 1,777 art entries from around the region. This year, Maggie Walker students won a grand total of 63 awards, the most in the area!

There were 16 total Gold Key award winners, one Gold Key portfolio, ten Art Gold Keys, and four Photography Gold Keys. Hanna Ngai (‘22) was a Gold Key winner for her art portfolio made from plastic, which she called saved from the garbage. Our four photography Gold Key winners were Anna Flora (‘23), Summer Fraughnaugh (‘23), Hunter Knull (‘23), and Libbie Syd- nor (‘23). Flora’s photography submission is titled the Monster States. Flora also won a Silver Key for her work titled Monster Germany. Fraughnaugh’s award-winning piece is Lucy’s Photo, which features a horse. Knull’s photo is titled Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors, a beautiful still-life. Sydnor titled her work Siege of Cranes.

Mercedes Luna (‘25), Isabella List (‘24), Ananya Sairaman (‘23), and Ishaan Dave (‘24) all won Gold Keys for their incredible drawings and illustrations. Luna’s Classical Portrait of a Young Activist piece displays a young activist holding a sign. List’s work of art is titled Self Portrait. Sairaman titled her work Enduring Perception. Two artists won a Gold Key for their mixed media work, Savannah Cave (‘22) and Devyn Powers (‘22). Cave’s artwork is titled Female. Cave also had another mixed media work that won a Silver Key called Untitled. Powers won three Gold Keys, two for her mixed media work, Sunrise Man and Dualism, and one for her sculpture, poppy flower. Powers also won a Silver Key for her crocheted faces portfolio, which she called Faces, and was given an honorable mention for two mixed media pieces. Rachel Dai (‘24) used printmaking to create her Gold Key winning piece, Untitled. Finally, Reade Henley (‘23), with her expanded project titled The Waltz of Work won a Gold Key. Henley also won a Silver Key for her work of fashion called Folded Effort.

Along with our 16 Gold Key winners, we have 19 Silver Key winners, including one Silver Key portfolio, eleven Art Silver Keys, and seven Photography Silver Keys. In Ms. Georgianne Stinnett’s photography classes, seven of her students won Silver Keys: Madelyn Campbell (‘22), Elizabeth Eckstein (‘23), Sophia Isaacs (‘23), Allyson Phillips (‘23), Kayla Robertson (‘23), and Hanna Ngai (‘22). Campbell’s submission, Retail Rail, is a photograph of a shopping cart next to a railroad. Isaacs’s photo Biohazard won a Silver Key. Phillips’s photography work is titled The Watching Eyes. Stripes is the title of Robertson’s Silver Key winning submission. Ngai not only won a Gold Key for her portfolio, but she also won a Silver Key for her photography submission, restrain me. Ngai also won another Silver Key for her sculpture called impermanent permanence. Gwen Stankiewicz won a Silver Key for her fashion submission, Thorns of Steel.

Four MLWGS students won Silver Keys for their paintings, including Kaitlyn Baker (‘22), Mallory French (‘22), Cameron Golden (‘23), and Ala Killen (‘23). Baker’s work is titled Broken Foam Finger. Five Purple Circles is the title of French’s painting full of patterns. Misplaced Faith and Narcissist’s Family Portrait are the names of Golden’s two paintings that won a Silver Key. Killen’s painting of a dragon towering over a horse is titled Dragon and Horse. Additionally, Lexi Pasternak won two Silver Keys for her digital artworks, The Charge and The Last Word.

Many of our students got honorable mentions. We received 28 honorable mentions, including three portfolios, twenty-two Art, and four Photography honorable mentions. The three dragons that won an honorable mention for their portfolios are Savannah Cave (‘22), Mallory French (‘22), and Lexi Pasternak (‘22). Benjamin Davis (‘23), Elisabeth Eckstein (‘23), Madison Kang (‘22), and Ala Killen (‘23) all received an honorable mention for their photography submissions. Five incredibly talented students were given an honorable mention for their sculptures, Kori Benjamin (‘23), Sydney Brewer (‘24), Emil Josefiak (‘23), Killen, and Ngai. Benjamin, Elena Loy (‘25), Mercedes Luna (‘25), and Hoda Vohra (‘25) all got an honorable mention for their drawings and illustrations. Three of our fellow students also received honorable mentions for their paintings, including Kaitlyn Baker, Cecilia Oseguera (‘23), and Audrey Price (‘22). Price also got another mention for her jewelry submission. Powers and Katherine Hahn (‘23) were recognized for their mixed media submissions, while Hahn got honorable mention for her mixed media work and her fashion piece and expanded project. Gray Pershing (‘23) and Pasternak received honorable mentions for their film and animation submissions.

We are immensely proud of our Dragons! There were numerous awards in each category and a variety of awards. The amount of participation from our school in this competition is incredible. This year, for the number of awards we won in the competition, our school was recognized as one of the region’s top schools for the Arts. Congratulations to everyone who won an award or was recognized!