By Dane Anderson, Staff Writer

Students at two local private schools excelled at the Regional Scholastic Art Awards competition held at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School on Jan. 17. St. Stephen’s Episcopal School touted seven Gold Key Award winners, eight Silver Key Award winners and five Certificate of Merit recipients. St. Gabriel’s Catholic School students walked away with one Gold Key Award and one Certificate of Merit.

The Scholastic Art Awards contest is the longest running recognition program in the United States for secondary school art students. This year, 434 students from 27 Travis and Williamson county middle schools and high schools entered work in the competition. St. Stephen’s has hosted the regional exhibition for more than a decade. 

St. Stephen’s Gold Key Recipients were: Michael Brewer, Nicole Ezell, Ji Yun Lee, Adam Long, Maxine Olefsky, Chantal Strasburger and Elizabeth Tyson. Silver Key winners were Audrey Blood, Alan Downey, Dillon Gisch, Jae-Hyun Ju, Maxine Olefsky, Megan Parra, A. Mayte Salazar-Ordonez and Chantal Strasburger. St. Stephen’s Certificate of Merit recipients were Erika Dahl-Stamnes, Juhee Han, Ji Yoon Kim, Monica Marion and Maxine Olefsky.

St. Gabriel’s Frankie Chen took home a Golden Key award and fellow student Eric Gonzalez won a Certificate of Merit.

St. Stephen’s hosted a reception in the school’s Scanlan Art Gallery on Jan. 25 to honor all area students who won awards in the competition. Gold Key recipients will progress to a national competition in New York later in the year. 

As reported in the Feb. 19 Picayune, Westlake High School students also fared well in the completion with eight Gold Key winners, 11 Silver Key winners and four Certificate of Merit recipients. Three WHS students garnered top awards in the contest. Ryan Summersett and Colleen Troxell won American Vision Awards and will progress on to completion on a national level. Shannon Soule won the People’s Choice Award. Soule was a 2008 national American Vision Award winner.