Across the nation, many outstanding and creative students submit to a prestigious recognition program to be awarded for their hard work, originality, and inventiveness in their work. The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards have been recognizing excellent art and writing students since 1923. This 2025-2026 school year, The Seven Hills School has celebrated exceptionally successful students. With multiple submissions, recognitions, and awards, this year stands out as one of the most successful rounds of submissions in school history.

For over a century, the Scholastic competition has honored students in grades 7-12 for their unique skills and voices. Students can submit to multiple categories focusing on art and writing. This competition aims to encourage creativity and motivate students to share their work with the world. In order to be acknowledged, the competitor must have an authentic voice. For the 2025 scholastic submissions, applicants who presented their feelings of grief and loss through their pieces could have applied for a cash award. Students submitting in other categories could have been recognized for other specific opportunities, but most students’ goal is to achieve a gold key. In the regional competition, the first 5-7% receive gold, the next 7-10% receive silver, and the next 10-15% receive an honorable mention. When a student gets a gold key, their artwork or literary piece moves on to be judged at a national level.

Submitting to Scholastic is important for future writers and artists, as it allows them to share their work and gain confidence. Upper school English teacher Mark Beyreis said, “It’s good for students to have that experience, not to have grades be their motivation. It’s their own desire to share things and have them be recognized by others.” Applying can be daunting for a student, and the courage it takes for one to submit a piece is huge. Students are celebrated for the true talent that they put behind their work. “Some of the works are really inspiring, or sad, or happy. It’s just really important to submit if you have something you think is good to put out into the world,” said Freshman Aly Trevino, winner of a gold key for the 2025 competition.

Compared to the previous years, the number of entries that Seven Hills submitted increased by about 100. Seven Hills did remarkably well in all categories, winning many Scholastic Awards. Many students received recognitions, and on top of that, multiple gold keys were earned. Upper school students broke records on winning consecutive years and being awarded multiple gold keys. In addition, the Seven Hills journalism branch won three gold keys. For the art branch, we received 7 gold keys.

This year’s success emphasizes more than just individual accomplishments. Beyreis exclaimed, “There is a culture here, when students believe in what they do, they invest in it, they get better at it, and they encourage each other. We accomplished a great deal as a whole collective.” Collaboration and confidence are important to reach goals and honor one’s dedication.

Each competitor worked hard to share their writing and art with others, and with their motivation, the Seven Hills School achieved impressive results. The Scholastic Awards were a great way to showcase the creative ability of students in our school, and this year, the risk that students who submitted took helped strengthen our community of artists and writers.