McCallum’s Fine Art Academy has many strengths, but one of the most successful programs is the visual arts department. Here, teachers and students focus on the development of technical skills through different mediums to produce thoughtful, personal, and creative art pieces. In January of 2026, the success of the art program was further confirmed by the announcement of the Scholastic Reading and Writing Awards. McCallum students earned the most honors in the region, with 31 Honorable Mentions, 16 Silver Keys, and 17 Gold Keys, for talented art pieces evaluated against others across the nation. Additionally, 3 students became American Visions Nominees, which is an elite description given to only 5 total students in Central Texas.
The Scholastic Reading and Writing Award program is one of the country’s longest running and most-prestigious recognition programs for creative high school students. Starting in 1923, the program focuses on supporting the future of creativity for high school students. Apart from just the recognition of getting the award, McCallum teachers urge art students to enter for other reasons as well.
“We always strongly encourage our visual arts majors to submit as part of their four-year development plan,” McCallum art teacher Sara Massey Lynch said. “Since competitions like Scholastic help them build portfolios and gain real-world experience.
Massey has been a McCallum teacher since 2021, teaching art through history, drawing, painting, and many more mediums. Massey helps motivate students to put their experiences and emotions into physical representations, leading to success in competitions like this one. She believes the Fine Arts Academy has allowed her to have an impact that other places would not.
“I love working in a community where students are deeply committed to their craft and feel safe taking creative risks.” Massey said. “The Fine Arts Academy allows us to support students as artists and as people, building skills, confidence, and voice. Watching them grow from freshmen into nationally recognized artists and seeing doors open for them through awards and scholarships is truly special.”
The scholarship opportunities are another benefit of excelling in the Scholastic competition. Through the program, it is possible to win category-based scholarships, special awards, and Portfolio Awards offering up to $12,500 for graduating seniors, along with exhibition and publication opportunities that strengthen college and career portfolios.
WIth this, visual art students have many motives to enter their work, leading to so much success across the program.
“I was really happy and surprised that I had won a Gold Key,” Sophomore Lila Demerath said. “I am very grateful that my teachers wanted me to enter in my piece, because although I really liked it, I didn’t have as much confidence that I could win something.
Demerath is in her second year of being a visual-arts major, and was one of 17 McCallum students to win a Gold Key for her piece, Pouring Tradition. Not only is this the highest award for the regional level, but a Gold Key also nominates her piece to be considered for a national-level award. Demerath praises the McCallum Fine Art’s Academy for her techniques of watercolor and pencil she used for her piece, but is also proud of the recognition she got for the message behind her art. Pouring Tradition depicts a similarly dressed mother and a daughter, pouring tea to one another.
“This piece portrays how the roles of women and motherhood are often passed down through generations, through expectations and continued responsibilities,” Demerath said. “This is something that is important to me, and I am grateful I am able to express this to more people outside of McCallum.”
Apart from her appreciation of the message of her art being spread through states, Demerath is also grateful for the opportunity to be recognized for the effort put into the piece.
“I think this took a month of class to finish,” Demerath said. “I worked hard on crafting my message, composition, and planning out what I had wanted to complete, before even starting. When thinking of what to submit for the competition, I chose this piece because I really liked how the technical part turned out, but also how my message could be seen through the piece.”
16 other McCallum students won this same Gold Key award, including Mia Gonzales, who won 6 for her pieces Homeward, Homebody, Girl Song, Norene, Starling, and Memory Hole. With this, McCallum won more Gold Key awards than anyone else in the region, solidifying their prestige and success.
Another major McCallum achievement was winning 3 out of the 5 possible American Vision nominations, nationally awarded to works that display originality, skill, and the emergence of a personal voice or vision. Senior Mira Patel won for her work, A Thousand Saffron Threads, freshman Eloise Darnall won for her work, That’s Bananas!, and sophomore Paulina Chandler won for her work, Online Insides.
“I was not expecting to win this large of an award,” Chandler said. “ But when I learned I had, I was so happy.”
Online Insides, a life size dress depicting organs inside the human body, with a light box in the center depicting a phone, is one of the pieces Chandler is most proud of, and had experimented with different materials to execute it.
“ I was very grateful for my teachers,” Chandler said. “They really helped me find out materials to use, what to do next, and how to assemble the dress.”
The dress is made of paper, covered in newspaper, and took much effort to finally complete.
“This was one of my favorite pieces, and I chose to submit it because it was unique to many things I had done before,” Chandler said. “The award really represents and shows how much effort I put into the piece, and it really is an amazing, unimaginable award.”
Art is something that Chandler has often found comfort in, and she enjoys her experience as a visual art major at McCallum.
“ I enjoy the emotion that art evokes,” Chandler said. “It is a way to express and put yourself in a piece, and offer another perspective to the world. I am very happy and grateful that this award has allowed so many others to enjoy and see my art. It is an honor to me.
Apart from her Gold Key and American Visions Award for this piece, Chandler also won an award for her print piece, Naturally Beautiful in Unnatural Ways. She, along with 15 others, won Silver Keys, helping McCallum achieve its goal of the most honors in the region. Although this is the third consecutive year that McCallum has won the most honors in the Central Texas Region, Massey continues to be surprised and eternally proud of her students and is grateful that their hard work is paying off.
“I’m most proud of their growth and dedication,” Massey said. “These works represent months, and often years, of skill-building and perseverance. Seeing students take creative risks, express their identities, and have their voices recognized beyond our classroom, and even earn scholarships and national opportunities, is incredibly rewarding.”