Students Recognized for 2025 VT Scholastic Art and Writing Awards
St. Johnsbury Academy students won forty-three awards in this year’s 2025 Vermont Scholastic Art and Writing Awards for both Fine Art and Writing. A total of twenty-three students won awards for their work in Portfolio (Art), Drawing & Illustration, Fashion, Architect and Industrial Design, Digital Art, Ceramics & Glass, Expanded Projects, Fashion, Poetry, Photography, Print Making, Painting, Mixed Media, Dramatic Script, and Flash Fiction. They received four Gold Keys, ten Silver Keys, and 29 Honorable Mentions. Entries winning Gold Keys will be judged at the national level of the competition in the coming weeks.
Gold Key winners include senior Brett Wallingford in Digital Art for Light (Somewhere), Brett also won Silver Keys for Digital Art’s Self (Guiding Star), and Drawing & Illustration’s Familiar (Haze), and Honorable Mention in Digital Art with Familiar (Mary and Martha), and in Painting with Tender (You Learn to Live With It).
Junior Hannah White also received a Gold Key for her Mixed Media project, Reflection. Additionally, she earned Honorable Mention for Realm of Imagination in Drawing & Illustration and was recognized twice in Mixed Media for Civilized Conversation and Ghost Dog.
Junior Finn Burgess received a Gold Key for cheesecloth in Drawing and Illustration and sophomore Raine Rashid was named an American Voices Nominee and Gold Key winner for their poem Whalesong.
Two Silver Keys were earned by sophomore Antonita Rae Melchor in Painting for Golden Hour Crosswalk and Pool day, also in painting. Antonita Rae also earned Honorable Mention in Painting for Mermaid and The buzz around me.
Junior Ruby Tillotson also received two Silver Keys, including Waiting for Him in Poetry and Fracturing Sustenance in Photography. Additionally, Ruby earned Honorable Mention in Dramatic Script for Markers, and in Flash Fiction, Ruby earned Honorable Mention for three different pieces including Shell Shocked, Snow White and the Dogs Predator, and Victim of the Concrete Jungle.
Junior Jada Wood earned a Silver Key in Painting with Bright Day with a Monarch Butterfly and Honorable Mention in Painting with Right at You.
Senior Tressa Miller earned a Silver Key in Mixed Media for Internal and an Honorable Mention for New World in Painting.
Junior Marcus Burns earned a Silver Key for Skincare in the Poetry category and senior Addison Chandler also earned a Silver Key in Poetry for 31821.
Students receiving Honorable Mention are:
Morgan Forest ‘25 in Fashion for Pastoral Day To Night (Handbag) and in Personal Essay & Memoir for The Eyes Of The Past
Victoria Gutierrez ’25 Architecture & Industrial Design for Small House and in Ceramics & Glass for Inspired by the World.
Willamina Kantrowitz ’25 in Printmaking for Drunk on a Plane and for Peach House
Addison Heath ‘25, Photography, Breath of the Desert
Rylie Johnston ’26, Photography, Hidden Heart
Beatrice Garvin ’28, Poetry, Memory Lane
Mason Lemieux ‘25, Photography, Fading into Nature
Ella Romero ’26, Drawing & Illustration, Fade Into You
Taryn Trombley ’25, Mixed Media, The Apple of my Eye
Emma Ward ‘26, Poetry, Sandhill Cranes
Margaret Williams ‘25, Portfolio (Art), What People Find Precious
Kevin Zheng ’25, Photography, Lost & Found
Yueming Zhu ‘26, Painting, Serenity of Decay
Headmaster Sharon Howell said, “This is the largest number of students we’ve had recognized by these national awards since I arrived at the Academy, and that is so exciting. It speaks not just to the talent of the students, but to the skill, expertise, and dedication of our arts and writing faculty. I want to appreciate and honor the fact that because of these teachers’ efforts both to generate enthusiasm for art and to direct that energy into learning, the creative arts are flourishing at the Academy and getting stronger all the time.”
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.
