A Gold Medal Portfolio Award is the highest honor students can receive in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Jurors choose portfolios by high school seniors whose works best represent the Scholastic Awards’ judging criteria: originality, skill, and the emergence of a personal vision or voice. These remarkable artists and writers will each receive a $12,500 scholarship.
Haneul Park
Roome Fund Art Portfolio Award
Ann Arbor, MI
My work implements pen and ink to illustrate the beauty of Korea to the audience. The materials I use for my work consist of several sizes of ink pens, rulers, pencils, erasers, and large sheets of paper. I enjoy ink pens as a form of art because of the vast amount of details and textures I can achieve with simply the different pen sizes and pen strokes. I spend hours making pen strokes to craft an image full of different values and details. Up close, the drawings may seem like a variety of different hatching and contour lines, but far away, a detailed image comes into view. Both zoomed in and from far out I appreciate the look of these intricate ink-pen works, which is why I enjoy this medium so much. My ink-pen illustrations are influenced by my love for Korea, and the longing feeling I have as I reminisce about my favorite experiences and the beauty I experienced during my time there. I aim to show people my unique take on the city in Korea, including the beautiful lifestyles and impressive city that carries so much life.
Reminiscing Korea
Jacob Jing
The Robinson Family Writing Portfolio Award
Denton, TX
Much of this portfolio revolves around manhood—namely, my transition into manhood, and my relationship to the men around me. In broader terms, these pieces are about what it means to love what you see in yourself. The portfolio begins by critically outlining the conditions of trans existence in the present before familiarizing the reader with more complex themes surrounding trans masculinity and what it means to be “transgressive” in a heteronormative world. The final essay is a meditation on writing itself and how I use it to bring myself towards joy. Throughout the portfolio, one of the persisting themes is the politics of visibility. In Ode to the Gender Neutral Bathroom, the speaker fears not their own trans body, but the way that the world will perceive them. They fear being labeled as something without their consent. However, in park bench boyhood, the speaker becomes the witness; while watching the men play basketball, they indulge in both their envy of and their longing for men. Right now, I feel as though this country is becoming more and more unsafe for trans people. I was only sixteen when my state banned gender-affirming care for minors, forcing me off of hormones. Now, as we move towards a more conservative government, I’m even more afraid of what will happen to my rights. However, I also believe in speaking my truth and in the ability of language to fuel resistance. I believe that we will survive, no matter what it takes, and I’ll go to hell before I allow myself to be silenced. All queer people deserve to live their lives in safety and happiness, so until then, I will write.
Ode to the Gender-Neutral Restroom
When I say safety, I mean a door
that locks, tucked behind a corner
where even the light struggles
to define its own anatomy. Inside,
I tug my waistband down to my knees,
watch my flesh re-expand, spill
over the cold white porcelain like a secret
wrenched wet out of a mouth.
A friend once told me I wish you had never told me
what you are, and I wonder if it was me
or my body, the way it obfuscates, the way
it invites interrogation.
Click here to read more!
To see more Gold Medal Portfolio recipients, past and present, visit our Eyes on the Prize series.