Nine Students From Westhill, Stamford HS Earn Regional Art, Writing Awards

Two students come from the Academy of Information Technology & Engineering (AITE). Four students come from Stamford High School (SHS) and three from Westhill High School (WHS).

These students have been recognized for their submissions in the 2019 Connecticut Regional Scholastic Art & Writing Awards program, a national program dedicated to honoring creative efforts of public, private, and parochial school students in grades 7 through 12.

Students receive either a Gold Key, a Silver Key or an Honorable Mention Award in each of the 29 categories. Each category is judged by a panel of artists, university faculty, editors, novelists, teachers and other related professionals in the field. The organization asserts that this is now the largest and most senior program of its type in the country.

The list of student winners from Stamford Public Schools includes:

• Dechante Clarke, SHS:  Gold Key, Drawing and Illustration (Teacher: Paul Cusano)
• Maggie Meister, SHS: Gold Key, Photography (Teacher: Module Downer)
• Nathan Yao, AITE: 2 Gold Keys and an Honorable Mention, Digital Art (Teacher: Darin Tomaszewski)
• Khalil Briscoe, SHS: Silver Key, Digital Art (Teacher: Erika Arconti-Galassi)
• Melanie Brito, WHS: Silver Key, Photography (Teacher: Tamara Dilworth)
• Charlotte Saunders, SHS: Honorable Mention, Photography (Teacher: Paul Cusano)
• Wendy Avila, WHS:  Honorable Mention, Drawing and Illustration (Teacher: Elizabeth Moncure)
• Joaquin Monteclaro, WHS: Honorable Mention, Digital Art (Teacher: Mathew DiGiovannaIt)

Isabella DeCicco (Teacher: Edward Donnelly) from AITE also received a Gold Key for her literary work in the 2019 Hudson-to-Housatonic Region Scholastic Writing Awards, administered by Writopia Lab.

The panel of judges selected a total of 787 art award recipients based on an estimated 3,000 total entries. The judges for the writing awards chose works they say demonstrated “originality, technical skill and the emergence of a personal voice or vision” from a total of 2,009 entries.

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