University School had an impressive year at the 2017 Regional Scholastic Art + Writing Awards Competition, with 68 students receiving 83 awards. This marks the fifth consecutive year that US has achieved such a strong representation at the competition.
University School students won 12 gold keys, 24 silver keys, and 47 honorable mentions. Gold key winners continue to the national competition in New York City in June. The student artwork will be on exhibit, Jan. 17 to Feb. 3, in the Reinberger Gallery at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Visit
CIA for more information.
This year, more than 1,800 students in grades 7-12 in Cuyahoga County submitted more than 3,100 pieces of artwork and writing samples to be judged.
"A hearty congratulations goes out not only to our students who won awards in a wide variety of writing categories, but also to everyone who entered the contest,” said Janice Fazio, Upper School English teacher and adviser. “It’s always a risk to submit your work to be judged, and our students should be proud of their efforts.”
Michael Starinsky, chair of the Department of Art and Design Technology at the Upper School, noted, "We are extremely proud of the work our students created this year. We are most proud of the fact that our awards cover so many different categories in the competition. It is a testament to our students' good work and our teachers' skilled guidance."
The gold and silver key recipients are:
Dan Accordino – gold key, design
Uzo Ahn – 2 silver keys, critical essay “The Curious Case of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach” and personal essay, “The Art of Nature”
Reid Anderson – silver key, digital art
Omer Ashruf – 2 sliver keys, critical essays “Abraham Lincoln’s Reconstruction” and “Validity of the Democratic Peace Theory: The Warlike Nature of Autocracies in Relation to Democracies”
Will Ellis – gold key, drawing and Illustration
Cole Fallon – gold key, drawing and illustration
Max Feldman – 2 silver keys, photography
Tyler Fertel – silver key, critical essay “The Effects of Legalizing Sports Betting”
Ben Firstenberg – silver key, personal essay “Tryouts”
Rohan Garg - gold key, photography; 2 silver keys, photography
Hunter Goldberg – silver key, photography
Adam Gurary – 2 silver keys, short story “Life of Bill” and science fiction, “Log: The Observation”
Eli Kaufman – silver key, photography
Daniel Leonard – gold key, critical essay “The Drowning City”
Will Leslie - 2 gold keys, photography
Miles Monga – 2 silver keys, dramatic script “The Life of a Fool” and short story “Puppy Love”
Ryan O’Malley – silver key, digital art
Isaiah Paik – gold key, critical essay “Teaching Living, Teaching Learning”; silver key, critical essay “North Korea’s Media Misrepresentation: A Vicious Cycle”
Michael Richmond – silver key, critical essay “The Controversy of Huck Finn”
James Sheeler – gold key, sculpture; silver key, photography
Dylan Siegler – silver key, critical essay, “Wikileaks: When Journalism is Terrorism”
Rafiq Sitabkhan – gold key, photography
Dante Sudilovsky – 2 gold keys, photography; silver key, digital art
Grant Wasserman – silver key, photography
University School students received honorable mentions in the following categories:
Architectural & Industrial Design: Dan Accordino, Chris Coughlin, Andrew Weitzman
Art Portfolio: Rohan Garg
Ceramics & Glass: James Sheeler
Critical Essay: Jacob Bartell, Hadi Bouali, Reed Chen, Eric Miranda, Jack Sacks, Tim Sullivan
Design: Brendon Slabe
Digital Art: Ryan O’Malley (2), Matthew Holland, Caleb Peters
Drawing & Illustration: Will Ellis
Flash Fiction: Will Zhang
Journalism: Sumner Jones
Personal Essay: Jon Blackwell, Joe Fedro, Rohan Garg
Photography: Firas Abboud, Enrique de la Mata, Rohan Garg, Will Leslie, Kyle Llinas, Caleb Peters (2), Arjun Ramachandran, Bryan Rego, John Sazima (2), James Sheeler (2), Riaz Sitabkhan, Gabe Teel
Poetry: Quinn Kennedy, Daniel Ryan
Printmaking: George Necastro
Sculpture: Craig Centa, John Hollington, Adam Marcia
Short Story: Rohan Garg, Jack Harris, Topstone Liang, John-Shaw Moazami