Decisions were made, awards were given, and eight Vista del Lago High School students were honored for their work in writing, art and photography by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards of 2013-14.

The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards is a nationwide contest for seventh through twelfth grade students that showcases either their writing or artwork in 28 different categories for the prize of a gold key, silver key or an honorable mention. Winners also have the chance to earn a variety of scholarships.

This contest began in 1923 as a small writing contest with a five dollar prize. Now, more than 90,000 teens across the nation submit their creations for opportunities to exhibit their work, get published, earn recognition and scholarships.

“I won a silver key for photography and two honorable mentions for a ceramic piece and a photography piece,” Elizabeth McClain, a senior at Vista, said. McClain had submitted her work in November and Scholastic Awards sent her an email at the end of February that she had won a silver key for her photography piece “Love story.” (Below)

McClain also won two other honorable mentions. One was another photography piece, “Morning Sea,” that she had taken in Monterrey one summer at the beach two years ago, and the other was a ceramic piece called “Magic In the Imagination” that she made over the course of a couple of months in her ceramics class.

There were seven other honorable mention winners that won the Scholastic Awards, including Ashley Anderson, who won a mention for her drawing called “The Struggle,” and Shannon Cefalu who won a mention for a photograph she named “Holding His Little Girl”.

The other award winners were: Evelyn Eidsath, who won under the sculpture category which she named “Dungeons and Dragons,” Kody Kolstrup, who won a mention under printmaking for his piece called “Aggression,” Katherine Palacios, who won under the drawing category for her piece called “In Love With the Throw Away Boy,” Spencer Poggemann, who won under the ceramics and glass category named “Rhino Vase,” and Kaysen Pyle, who won under the short story category for the piece “And So She Walked on Stars” (which also won Best in Show in Vista’s Pen to Paper writing contest).

Jamie Jordan won two honorable mentions, both in Journalism. The first article she submitted was “Meet Vista’s Director of Communications Junior Reed Waxham” and her second was “Vista Freshman Fight Ban ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.'”  The last winner of an honorable mention was Hallie Daly, who won a mention under the drawing category for a piece named “Let There Be Peace.” (Below)

Not every piece of artwork or writing made it into being given some kind of award. Out of the 128,000 works admitted into the competition, only a select few were given an award or honorable mention. McCain only got three awards out of the thirteen she entered. “I put in five ceramic pieces, and eight photography pieces… it was really expensive,” McCain said. Admitting each piece of work cost the artist five dollars to put it into the competition, so McCain spent sixty-five dollars putting in her work for the Scholastic Awards.

Despite the cost, each Vista writer and artist succeeded in committing their time and talent into doing this competition. Congratulations to those who won an award this year, and even to those who didn’t.