Since submissions for the 2018 Scholastic Awards opened last September, students and educators have eagerly been waiting for National Notification Day! On March 13, the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers announced the 2018 National Medalists of the Scholastic Awards.

More than 2,800 students received National Medals this year, joining a list of notable alumni like Andy Warhol, Sylvia Plath, Robert Redford, Kay WalkingStick, Zac Posen, and this year’s Alumni Achievement Honoree, the author and illustrator Marc Brown.

Nearly 350,000 works of art and writing were submitted to the 2018 Scholastic Awards! Hundreds of jurors across the country judged the works in 29 categories of art and writing, such as poetry, sculpture, short story, painting, critical essay, and video game design.

A full list of 2018 National Medalists is available at artandwriting.org.

A special congratulations goes out to the sixteen seniors who received the Scholastic Awards’ highest honor: Gold Medal Portfolio:

The recipients of the Gold Medal Portfolios in Art are:

Alia Bringas-Brand, age 17, Interlochen, MI
Maya Dixon, age 17, Bronx, NY
Zaria Dudley, age 17, Wahiawa, HI
Fletcher Johnson, age 17, Petersburg, VA
Mackie Mallison, age 18, Portland, OR
Emily Shonk, age 17, Gnadenhutten, OH
Christopher Velez, age 17, St. Petersburg, FL
Jiahong Wang, age 18, Irvine, CA

The recipients of the Gold Medal Portfolios in Writing are:

Vicky Brown, age 17, Greenville, SC
Kush Dhungana, age 17, Livingston, NJ
Malachi Jones, age 17, North Charleston, SC
Sarena Kuhn, age 17, Los Alamitos, CA
Osarugue Otebele, age 16, Memphis, TN
Alexandra Swerdloff, age 17, Boise, ID
Sam Wachman, age 17, Cambridge, MA
Triniti Wade, age 17, Miami, FL

Congratulations to all of the 2018 National Medalists!