Three Lincoln students won Silver Medal Awards from the National Scholastic Art & Writing Contest while an additional nine qualified at one of the nation’s most prominent competitions for young writers and artists.

Senior Selena Yao and junior Chloe Zhou won art awards in the Painting and Drawing & Illustration categories, respectively, while freshman Kyler Wang won a writing award in the Personal Essay category.

“As a young artist it’s really hard to get recognition from other people about your work,” says junior Emma Howard, who qualified for two separate works. “It’s really nice for us to have a competition that values young people expressing themselves in ways that aren’t all STEM-related.”

Students who qualified for the national competition were recognized in three different categories – Gold Keys, Silver Keys, and Honorable Mentions. They also received the opportunity to have their work displayed at the Pacific Northwest College of Art in a two-week exhibit from Feb. 7 to 22.

“It’s a shame that the [art] department doesn’t get recognized enough,” remarks Howard. “People like [photography teacher] Ms. Abens and [art teacher] Ms. [Windle] provide us with so many different techniques and perspectives to help us suc-
ceed […] they’re a big reason why we have the opportunity to compete here at all.”