Batrek Yassa. The Unwavering Son. Grade 12, Age 17. 2012 Gold Medal, Art Portfolio.

In this segment of our Eyes on the Prize series, we would like to introduce you to another pair of 2012 Portfolio Gold winners: Batrek Yassa and Leah Lierz:

Batrek, 17, is an artist and a senior at Jersey City Arts High School Program in Jersey City, NJ. Art has served as a form of comfort during a difficult time in his life:

I had tasted, during the fall of my fourteenth birthday, a bitter fruit. Barren in taste, sharp in texture; it pressed on the buds of my tongue and scraped the walls of my throat as it followed gravity’s downward pull, anchoring itself to the base of my stomach. Sweet is the apple, sharp is the lime, but bitter is the fruit of fate, and it is the latter of three that had cursed me with its tang. Fourteen years had proved inadequate in ultimately arming me against the fates, for it was in my sophomore year of high school that my mother learned of the silent plague swelling within her. Diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, her muscles, which had once throbbed with vigor, were now fated to wither, parched in the drought of pestilence. Read More

Elizabeth Alexander. Song Sparrow. Grade 12, Age 17. 2012 Gold Medal, Drawing.

In honor of National Poetry Month, we’ve been collecting poetry lines from all of you on Facebook and Twitter, which we’ll combine at the end of the month to create one long poem. We’ve also been featuring a Poem-A-Day on our Facebook page, which showcases poems from some of this year’s Scholastic Art & Writing Awards winners. Today, however, is all about poems that you can take on the go – it’s Poem In Your Pocket Day! And, we’re celebrating it with Scholastic Award-winning poems that are 15 lines or less. Check ‘em out!

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The Invisible Poem
I once wrote a poem with invisible ink
So that when you saw it, you wouldn’t think it stinks
You see, I couldn’t think of anything to write
Nor any images to delight or excite
And so here is my sad little ditty:
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Felipe Di Poi. Portrait of My Mother. Grade 12. 2012 Gold Medal, Art Portfolio.

Meet 2012 Portfolio Gold winners Felipe Di Poi and Haeyeon Cho of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards:

Felipe, 18, is an aspiring artist and a senior at Conard High School in West Hartford, CT. He likes to work in a variety of mediums including graphic design, comic art, film, and painting.

“The only way”: Art to me is the substance of experience. Along with the sciences, art is the only way that human beings have of manipulating their environment and understanding their surroundings. For me, art is the only way, other than real human interaction, of feeling happiness, sadness, exhilaration, fear, etc.
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Jessica Bonaventure. Parallel Universes. Grade 12, Age 17. 2011 American Visions Award, Mixed Media.

Here at Scholastic headquarters in SoHo (NY), we’re used to being around a lot of artwork. A lot. Each of the twelve floors in this building is adorned with hundreds of award-winning artworks that span all 89 years of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards program.

As the keepers of this collection, we at the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers wanted to know what Scholastic employees really wanted to see in the spaces and halls that they work in and pass by every day. So, we developed Scholastic Curates as a way to find out.

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A couple of weeks ago, we uncovered a gem in our archive – 1956 Scholastic Writing Award winner Joyce Carol Oates’s winning short story which was featured in Scholastic’s Literary Cavalcade magazine in 1957! Oates wrote A Dawn You’ll Never See during her senior year at Williamsville South High School in Williamsville, NY.

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Brianna Robinson. I Can’t Go. Grade 12, Age 17. 2012 Gold Medal, Photography Portfolio.

Last week, we introduced you to two of our 2012 Portfolio Gold winners—photographer Leo Purman and writer Emma Goldberg. We shared their creative process and presented a sample of the incredible work that they produced. In continuation of our Eyes on the Prize series, we would like you to meet our next pair of portfolio winners: Brianna Robinson and Yan Zhang. Read More