The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards is the country’s most distinguished program for creative youth to express themselves since 1923. Teens in grades 7-12 (ages 13 and up) can participate in one of the twenty-eight art and writing categories for a chance to win an award. The art categories range from comic art and design to poetry and novel writing. 

Wayne Hills’ sophomore Austin Ruan, junior Eunice Chi, junior Wenrui Zhang, and senior Jaein Han are winners of this year’s award. Ruan won three Gold Key Awards with his poems “Vagabond”, “Metamorphosis”, and “Stargazer (Rocky Shores)”.

“Winning felt unnatural at first. I couldn’t believe my eyes and had to process the actuality of my awards. I felt extremely thankful and glad that I was able to win three awards, and I gained my confidence in my poetic abilities,” Ruan said. He began writing poetry when he was eight years old, taking much inspiration from poet Emily Dickinson. He describes the hesitation when it came to applying for the award because he had never entered one before and never had a tutor; nevertheless, he compiled four poems together and decided to submit them to the competition, which yielded great results.

Eunice Chi won two Silver Keys with her poems “church bells and learning from my Demon” and “growing pains”. This is not her first time winning, for she also made seven submissions to the award last year and received two Gold Keys, a Silver Key, and four honorable mentions. Chi expresses, “I am so happy for winning the award because writing has been a favorite hobby of mine for a couple of years now. Some of my favorite writers that I draw a lot of my inspiration from are Ocean Vuong and Sylvia Plath. The poems I wrote this year were especially personal to me and I am very proud to see those poems win.” 

Wenrui Zhang received one Gold Key award (Drawing & Illustration) for her art piece “Hunger” which will now be judged at the national level, and a Silver Key award (Editorial Cartoon sponsored by The Herb Block Foundation) for her work “Limited Time” which are both pictured above. Zhang expresses, “I hoped to use my artworks to depict the beauty of nature and raise climate awareness among the audiences. I am very grateful for my friends and teachers who supported me while creating the pieces. I am also very thankful for being recognized by the popular Scholastic award.”

Jaein Han won a Silver Key award for her piece “Stage Masks.” The work is about how individuals prefer to disguise their genuine feelings behind well-crafted facial expressions. Han states, “The piece I submitted is about how people often

present emotions that are different to the ones they’re actually feeling. This juxtaposition was expressed by coloring the smiling face with cool colors (typically associated with sadness) and the crying face with warm colors (typically associated with happiness). I was inspired by the comedy/tragedy masks for the composition. In all honesty, I was really surprised to have won something. These awards tend to go to students attending arts-based high schools, so I’m really grateful for my work to have been recognized, and I think it’s cool that so many students from Wayne Hills were given honors!”

Some notable alumni from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards program are artist Andy Warhol (1945), poet and author Sylvia Plath (1947), author Stephen King (1965), essayist and current filmmaker Ken Burns (1971), poet Amanda Gorman (2015-6), among many others. Wayne Hills is beyond proud to count Austin Ruan, Eunice Chi, Jaien Han, and Wenrui Zhang among these distinguished alumni. Hills is honored to continue to foster great creative talent!