30 MCCSC students earn Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, chosen from 110,000 entrants nationwide
Bloomington High School North (BHSN) student artist Gray Andrews is not only an accomplished visual artist — she is also a playwright, costume designer, and comic artist. Andrews was recently recognized at the regional level for the 2026 Alliance for Young Artists & Writers Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, along with 30 other MCCSC students. Three students were named national medalists: William Liao (Bloomington High School South) earned two national Gold Medals for Critical Essays and the American Voices award, and Joseph Shing (MCCSC Academy of Science & Entrepreneurship) and Dakota Macklin (Bloomington High School South) earned Silver Medals for writing categories.
“I want to be a costume designer for work, so I created an art piece told through clothing,” said Andrews, explaining her design, which was awarded an honorable mention at the regional Scholastic Art Awards. “The concept of the piece is about how women are viewed in historical contexts, specifically in medieval Europe. Women are revered for the divine ability of creation, but at the same time they’re trapped in this sense of inferiority.”
Andrews was a costume designer for Bloomington High School North’s most recent musical production, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater and Hadestown.
“Hadestown was really fun because we got more fantastical with it,” she said. “There was one dress that was for the character Persephone. It would switch from being in the springtime and would fold up into an underworld dress, which was black. I designed that myself, and it would switch on stage, and I was very happy with that.”
Art as an outlet for student reflection
Like Andrews, students across MCCSC schools find art classes as a way to practice self-reflection, expression, and personal growth.
Student Ivan Glasgow was inspired by nature and the cycle of life and death for his ceramics series. Glasgow’s “Breath of the River” portfolio received a Golden Key regional Scholastic award. One of his pieces, “After the Run,” also earned a Silver Key regional Scholastic award.
“I’m a fly fisherman, and I’m always seeing stuff and I think, ‘I wish I could take that with me,’” said Glasgow, describing his inspiration.
“I was in the river in Northern Michigan and saw a dead fish, a 30-inch brown trout, and those fish are very elusive. They’re like the wolves of the river. It was really powerful to see … my whole portfolio is about connecting the fish’s environment to the animal.” he explained. “I think mainly my thing is being able to express what I see in the woods through making ceramic artwork modeled after the things I have witnessed.”
Eisley Motz was also inspired by nature.
“I love ferns, you see them out in the woods every summer here in Indiana and I like the curves that they make, which inspired the shape,” said Eisley Motz, of her ceramic vase. “I wanted to have a wider opening so I could put flowers in it, but I haven’t been able to use it since it’s been in art shows.”
Henrik Gong shared how he was often inspired by thoughts, feelings, and identity.
“This year I really wanted to focus on the euphoric parts of being who I am,” said Gong about his senior portfolio. “Our prompt was reflection and I wanted to express this feeling of thoughts and feelings as destinations.”
Rebecca Stewart shared that her artwork was reflective of her relationships and sense of self.
“The prompt for ‘The Deal’ was a dynamic self-portrait — it was me but it was a copy of a bunch of different poses I did in my kitchen. It was a surreal, abstract piece about my interests and how I can feel day-to-day, and each me was a different emotion,” she said. “The second piece was a still life of my sibling’s car from the prompt, ‘Unexpected Beauty.’”
Alina Wild described her expressive self-portrait as a dynamic between comfort and exploration.
“I really wanted to explore how … I create this bubble enclosed into myself and my own safe space, but also all of the things that I’m so close to doing and being a part of,” she said. “So my project included nature and fairy-tale like things to show both my imagination, but also my fear of stepping outside of my comfort zone — but it’s not scary or anything, it’s just a really cool thing waiting to be explored.”
Topaz Bernard described the artwork for her two Silver Key regional awards.
“Salami Family is about E. coli bacteria based off of personal experiences with contamination and OCD and I thought it would be fun to do it in a way that is not so serious,” said Bernard.
Carlee Mueller is a Scholastic Art Award winner from a prior school year. Her self-portrait earned her a Gold regional award, a Gold national award, and the American Visions award earned by only 150 students nationwide.
“I did a self-portrait all about my personal growth and my journey with mental health,” said Mueller. “Along with the more realistic portrait of me, I did a lot of texture with flower images of regrowth. I included lines of poetry around my neck because I felt restrained sometimes, and at the end I showed it breaking at the third line of poetry when I started to find my voice.”
Bloomington High School South senior Dakota Macklin said she was surprised and emotional when she learned that she won a national Silver Medal Scholastic award for her senior writing portfolio — one of only 11 awarded this year. This is Macklin’s fourth national medal: she has won a national silver or gold medal every year of her high school career.
“I should be able to describe the feeling of winning nationally because I’m a writer, but I really can’t,” she shared. “I’ve been writing for about five years now. I started writing during Covid, during the lockdown because I had a lot of time on my hands to try new things. I’ve always loved to make stories in my head, almost as much as I loved reading and storytelling, but it had never occurred to me to write them down until lockdown.”
Macklin credited all her teachers with encouraging her, including Maggie Guschwan, who helped her review and edit her writing. Macklin plans to attend Oberlin College to study creative writing after graduation.
“What I’m really hoping to do is work in publishing in the future,” she said. “Don’t get me wrong — I would love to be a writer and publish great work for myself, sure. I would love to keep writing, even as a hobby. But putting stories out into the world is my passion, and I want to support others in achieving it as much as I want to take strides toward it myself.”
Creation as a catalyst for student growth
Students said that creating art has helped them grow as individuals.
“I think this year, I’m more confident in my art and how I’m just myself,” said Gong. “This year, I really wanted to find my voice and experiment a lot more. That’s why I feel so connected with art. It’s kind of a cycle.”
“Last year, I was really proud of a tea set I made and after that, I was struggling because I was trying to top this tea set,” said Glasgow. “Then I realized, through the process, that it wasn’t about that. It was about what I’m learning. In the end, I’m just happy that I spent my time on [art] instead of something else. I’ve learned so much.”
“I’ve been submitting pieces for four years now … as a writer, I think I’ve gone through a fair amount of growth in all the years I’ve submitted to Scholastic,” said Macklin. “I can remember that each year, I hoped to find something about my writing to improve, even if I didn’t receive formal feedback from the competition. The first year I wanted to focus on writing realistic characters; the second year, I wanted to focus on writing more realistic plots; the third year, I was leaning more into the themes of my work. This year, I leaned toward — ‘How vivid, impactful, and interesting can I make this?’”
Glasgow said art also teaches real world skills, including perseverance.
“There are so many things in ceramics that translate to real life. You can spend two weeks on a piece and you’ll pour your heart out into it, and then you’ll go to pick it up and put it in the kiln and it will fall apart in your hands,” he said. “Yes, my art show is the image of what I made, but the story of what’s behind the pieces is really what’s important to me I think.”