Congratulations to Hannah Cooley.

Hannah has received a National Gold Medal through the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. This places Hannah in the top 1% of the nation.

Earlier this year Hannah placed in the CNY regional Scholastic Art & Writing Show with a Gold Key, and The Best Creative Ceramic Award.

The CNY regional show judged 1,995 individual works and 61 portfolios.

Her Gold Key distinction moved her piece on for national judging.

At the national level Hannah was judged among 230,000 works entered by students from every state in the nation for adjudication.

Now in its 98^th year, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are the nation’s largest, longest-running, and most prestigious scholarship and recognition program for young artists and writers in grades 7-12.

All art and writing submissions are blindly judged based on the same three criteria that have been in place since the program’s founding in 1923: originality, technical skill, and emergence of personal vision or voice.

Student works are first adjudicated regionally through more than 100 local Affiliates of the Alliance.

Students receiving Gold Keys, Silver Keys, Honorable Mentions, or American Visions & Voices Nominations are celebrated within their local communities through exhibitions and ceremonies.

Gold Key works are then judged nationally by an impressive panel of creative-industry experts to receive Gold, Silver, American Visions & Voices, and Gold and Silver with Distinction Portfolio Medals.

For more information about the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, visit artandwriting.org. Additional details about the Awards can be found in the Scholastic media room: http://mediaroom.scholastic.com/artandwriting.

Chris Wisniewski, Executive Director of the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, said: "The past twelve months have presented all of us—including our country's teens—with unprecedented challenges. The extraordinary young people recognized in this year's Scholastic Awards have crafted fresh, original work that grapples with the pandemic, racial and social justice, climate change, and more while also mining personal stories of triumph, loss, heartbreak, and growth. The National Medalists have blown us away with their ability to express themselves through inspired and inspiring art and writing; now more than ever, we need to hear the voices of these future leaders."