2026 Vermont Scholastic Art and Writing Awards
St. Johnsbury Academy students won fifty-three awards in this year’s 2026 Vermont Scholastic Art and Writing Awards for both Fine Art and Writing. A total of twenty-seven students won awards for their work in Portfolio (Writing), Journalism, Personal Essay & Memoir, Drawing, Critical Essay, Short Story, Fashion, Ceramics & Glass, Poetry, Photography, Experimental Photography, Painting, Screenplays & Scripts, and Flash Fiction, Portfolio (Art). They received six Gold Keys, 13 Silver Keys, and 34 Honorable Mentions. Entries winning Gold Keys will be judged at the national level of the competition in the coming weeks.
Gold Key winners include Marcus Burns ’26 in Portfolio (Writing) for We Mostly Live Underground, Scarlett Hersh ‘28 in Critical Essay for The Unmaking of the American Democracy: Trump, Authoritarianism, and the Erosion of Democracy, Rylie Johnston ‘26 in Experimental Photography for Praise Him All You Shining Stars, (which also received an Honorable Mention in Photography), Allison Schmidt ’29 in Drawing for Portrait of a Stranger, and Ruby Tillotson ‘26 in Personal Essay & Memoir for RamDom: The Teacher I Never Knew I Needed.
Additionally, Marcus earned Silver in Poetry for Amphibian and for New Moon. Scarlett earned Honorable Mention for her poems Waiting for the Sunrise and Heaven Gained Another Soul and her short story, The Bond That Took Flight. Ruby also earned a Silver in Portfolio for Writing with The Human Condition and Honorable Mention in Personal Essay & Memoir for You Have Three Months to Learn and Let’s Have Another Bite in Screenplays & Scripts.
Junior Grant Tucker earned Silver for The Short Lived Adventures of January Weed in Screenplays & Scripts and for Asthmatic in Poetry. Grant also earned seven Honorable Mentions for Pain Falling, Colorless, Help, A Pirate’s Ghazal, Orphanages Floors and Apple Cores, Cloaked Luna, and Winding Winds.
Burke Donovan ’28 earned a Silver in Poetry with Tiny Lenses and an Honorable Mention in Poetry with Rise Anyway.
Emily Morgan ’26 earned a Silver in Journalism with Like a Local: Burke, the Mountain That Raised Me and Elliette Melen ’28 earned a Silver in Ceramics and Glass for Apple Slide Shelf.
Junior Raine Rashid earned two Silvers in Poetry with On Home and PRESERVE SCORCHED FAITH AT THE FOREBEARER’S FUNERAL.
Poppy Shattuck ’27 also won two Silvers in Poetry with Carrow and Pleonexia and an Honorable Mention in Poetry for Treason.
Students earning Honorable Mention are:
Devlyn Foldeak ’26 in Photography for Reflections
Beatrice Garvin ’28 in Poetry for Makeup, Intertwined, and 50 years
Leo Kantowitz ’27 in Photography for Galaxy Far Far Away, Collection 1 of 4 – “Pew Pew” and Galaxy Far Far Away, Collection 2 of 4 – “Behind Me”
Conall Kennedy ’29 in Poetry for The Discarded Noble
Antonita Rae Melchor ’27 with She Can See What They Can’t in Painting
Reese Mulligan ’29 for Campus Landscapes in Drawing
Ivanna Mullins ’29 for Portrait of Woman in Drawing
Mia Porcelli ’29 in Drawing for November Portrait
Emma Putnam ’26 in Fashion with Pavonine
Colin Randal ’26 with Ye Three, Have Some Tea? and Tabitha Teapot, both in Ceramics and Glass
Ashton Switser ’29 with Aspen’s Mark in Flash Fiction
Audrey Roy ’27 in Ceramics and Glass with Cup and Saucer
Natalie Wheeler ’27 in Ceramics and Glass with Brokenness
Hannah White ’26 with Summer Nostalgia in Portfolio (Art)
Pieces receiving Gold Keys move on to be judged at the national level by an impressive panel of creative industry experts. National Medalists are recognized at the National Ceremony at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
CAPTION:
Gathering on Fuller Hall stage are: Ashton Switser ’29, Allison Schmidt ’29, Elliette Melen ’28, Mia Porcelli ’29, Ivanna Mullins ’29, Conall Kennedy ’29, Grant Tucker ’27, Ruby Tillotson ’26, Marcus Burns ’27, Colin Randall ’26, Rylie Johnston ’26, Eve LeBlanc ’26, Poppy Shattuck ’27, Antonita Rae Melchor ’27, Devlyn Foldeak ’26, Beatrice Garvin ’28, Audrey Roy ’27. Missing from the photo are Burke Donovan ’28, Scarlett Hersh ’28, Leo Kantrowitz ’27, Emily Morgan ’26, Reese Mulligan ’29Emma Putnam ’26, Raine Rashid ’27, Yuxuan Wang ’27, Natalie Wheeler ’27, and Hannah White ’26.
A slideshow of their work can be viewed here.
