Douglas brings home Scholastic Art Awards

Posted May 15, 2023

By Nardin Ishak

Opinions Editor

Scholastic Art and Writing Association, the longest-running and most prestigious creative awards program, released their 2023 award winners.

The categories of the program include Art categories, writing categories, architecture & industrial design, critical essay, ceramics & glass, dramatic script, comic art. Flash fiction, design, Journalism, digital art, humor,  drawing and illustration, novel writing, editorial cartoon, personal essay & memoir, expanded projects, poetry, fashion, science fiction & fantasy, film & animation, short story, jewelry, mixed media, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, art portfolio (graduating seniors only), writing portfolio (graduating seniors only). 

Any high school student can enter the scholastic awards by going on their website, creating an account, finding their school, selecting a category, uploading the work, and sending an entry form along with the entry fee or a fee waiver. The Scholastic Awards accepts entries beginning in September and the deadlines vary between December and January, depending on the region of the participant.

For the 2023 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, there were five David Douglas student awardees. Juniors Valeria Del Valle earned a silver key in printmaking for her piece “foraging” and  An Hoang earned a silver key in painting for her piece “My yellow journey”.

“Everyone went through a different journey in their life, whether it was difficult or challenging.Just know there is always hope for change and golden opportunities coming for you in the near future,” said Hoang.

Senior Cindy Truong won a silver key for her photography piece “fragile love”.  Truong won three additional photography honorable mentions for her pieces, “Hell…o?” , “Hips Don’t Lie” and “Just Feels”. Senior Julia Trufanova also earned an honorable mention in drawing and illustration and her drawing represents “the way we treat animals”.  Senior Yolo Martinez Munoz earned an honorable mention for her drawing and illustration piece “Burden”.

“Burden embodies how I imagined a human heart, broken,” said Munoz. “The art piece captures the feeling of being trapped and closed off, as if someone has lost hope in finding their person”.

“Photography was something I had an interest in as I grew older," said Truong. "I enjoyed taking portraits of people and capturing their emotions at that moment.  I want to thank my photography teacher, Mrs. Pals, for guiding me through this journey of self discovery.”