2016 WCM Regional Scholastic Art and Writing Awards

My favorite part of programs like this is seeing parents celebrate the creative accomplishments of their children.

Fountain Street Church was packed this year as they hosted the awards program again this year.

It was a great Saturday as I watched some of the most creative Michigan teens be recognized for their work in the 2016 West Central Michigan Regional Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. It was one of the most packed ceremonies I can remember as the speakers took a moment and framed the accomplishment for those in attendance. 

Dr. Schuitema gave great perspective on how taking creative risks and sharing your work takes courage.

​The featured speaker, Dr. Adam Schuitema (Associate Professor of English at Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University), helped frame the accomplishment for this year's winners as he invoked the names of Scholastic alumni like Truman Capote, Sylvia Plath, Lena Dunham, Robert Redford, Andy Warhol, and more. He praised students for taking the risk in sharing their work and competing in this prestigious competition which has a 94 year tradition. In his talk to students, Dr. Schuitema made note of the courage creativity takes and how much hope it brings to all of us to see these students share their talents as they look to find new solutions for the future. 

In addition, he shared the statistics from this year's Awards:

1,667 individual Art entries received
428 individual Writing entries received
45 Art portfolios received 
22 Writing portfolios received

859 Awards granted:
5 American Vision
5 American Voices
179 Gold Key
262 Silver Key
408 Honorable Mention

In addition to sharing the names of notable alumni, this year's award ceremony also had a former Scholastic Writing winner, Ken Burns, share encouragement and words of wisdom via video. He ended his video welcoming this year's winners into the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards family. 

It was inspiring to hear Ken Burns explain how winning the Scholastic Award as a student positively impacted him and his future.

It was exciting to see some of the winning work be displayed as winners were announced and to know that of them, many are from BCPS. Not all of our students were able to attend the ceremony, but here are some images from those that were. It was especially fun to see my past students Emma McCloud, Tommy Sadler, Krista Bartholomy, and Kennedy VanLeirop continue their Scholastic success and win as high school students. 

This is always a special day for me and my students. It is a time to celebrate accomplishments and recognize the hard work it took to earn their awards. It is also a great time to view the accomplishments of others and be inspired to think about what is possible next. 

I had such a great time talking with parents and meeting extended family members as we admired the creative courage so many students shared for this year's awards. 

Some of our 7-12th grade winners pose as a group during the reception at KCAD.

I am very excited to find out if any of our Gold Key winners have National Medals in their future when we find out those results on March 15! Until then we will be still smiling from the great accomplishment achieved this year and may even start planning for next.