By Alanna Levine and Tahja Smith — The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards have recognized teens for their creative talents since 1923. More than 300,000 works of art are entered in the competition. Of those, 17,000 have regional awards have been won. That number is then narrowed down to approximately 2,000 national winners.
Senior Emily Nelson entered her portfolio, as all seniors in the photography career tech must do. She won a gold medal in regionals for her work, “Entropy,” and then advanced to nationals because of her gold key in regionals and won a silver medal.
“She’s the only one going to nationals this year, but she is the 12th National Medal winner from our program,” photography teacher, Jeannene Mathis-Bertosa said. “Generally, we have one student every other year that goes to nationals.”
Nelson is part of the 0.7 percent of people who entered the competition to win at the national level.
“This year’s Scholastic competition was tough and just based on the work they selected to go further they were more about having meaning this year,” Nelson said.
There is an award ceremony on June 10, 2015 in New York to honor the winners. Nelson is planning on going if she wins a ticket in a raffle next week.
“I got really really interested in photography in 8th grade but I’ve always liked it,” Nelson said.
She plans on attending Kent State Stark to pursue a career in photography.
[Updated Aug. 12, 2017: This article has been reformatted for consistency.]
