Notre Dame Prep senior Reagan Kazyak learned today that she has earned the national Gold Key Award in the 2015 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards competition. It’s the first time a Notre Dame Prep student has won this award.
Kazyak will pick up her Scholastic Art & Writing Awards National Medal among other medalists from around the U.S. in a ceremony held in early June at Carnegie Hall in New York City. A Vintage Dream, by Reagan Kazyak earned the National Gold Key Award from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards organization.
Kazyak’s winning piece, which is called “A Vintage Dream,” is a dress constructed entirely out of pages taken from an actual storybook.
When she first heard of the national award today, Kazyak was very happy and excited, according to Sandy LewAllen, chair of the upper school’s art department. “She did cartwheels in class,” LewAllen said.
Kazyak’s artwork was one of nearly 300,000 entries submitted nationwide.
Earlier this year, Kazyak and other NDP student-artists earned a total of 17 regional awards from Scholastic this year. Her regional Gold Key award was then submitted for national adjudication by luminaries in the visual and literary arts, some of whom are past award recipients.
Kazyak said she may have to reconsider her college major given all her recent success in art. The colleges she is looking at all "have great art programs should I decide to go in that direction,” she said.
LewAllen noted that for the New York exhibition and ceremony in June, the Empire State Building will be lit up in gold that weekend in honor of the students receiving their National Gold Key Awards.
About the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards
For 92 years, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards have fostered the creativity and talent of millions of students through recognition, exhibitions, publications and scholarships. Alumni of the Scholastic Awards have gone on to continue their education at many of the top colleges and universities across the country, including Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Parsons The New School for Design, Carnegie Mellon University, Harvard University and Columbia University. Since its founding, the Awards program has identified the early promise of some of our nation’s most exceptional visionaries, including alumni such as Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, Richard Avedon, Philip Pearlstein, Sylvia Plath and John Updike, all of whom won when they were teens. More recently, Stephen King, Myla Goldberg, Zac Posen and Lena Dunham have become celebrated alumni of the program.
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About Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy
Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. The school's upper division enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame's middle and lower divisions enroll students in jr. kindergarten through grade eight. All three divisions are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDPMA is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy, visit the school's home page at www.ndpma.org.