Mount Pleasant High School senior, Paola Ventura, has been awarded the prestigious Gold Key in the 2020 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards competition for her mixed media piece titled “Fossils”. The Gold Key is the highest honor awarded and her piece now qualifies for National recognition.

For the Scholastic Art and Writing awards, teens in grades 7–12 (ages 13 and up) apply in 29 categories of art and writing. In 2019, students submitted nearly 340,000 works of art and writing to the Scholastic Awards. Submissions are juried by luminaries in the visual and literary arts, some of whom are past award recipients. Panelists look for works that best exemplify originality, technical skill, and the emergence of a personal voice or vision. Gold Key works are then judged nationally by a panel of creative–industry experts to receive National awards, some of which are recognized at a ceremony at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Ventura is a 4th year Mount Pleasant High School art student and is currently in the Advanced Placement (AP) program. She is thinking of going into the medical field after graduation and uses art as a way to unwind and relax.