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Twenty-Six Baldwin Students Win 2026 Scholastic Writing & Arts Awards
Congratulations to Baldwin’s 26 Upper School students who have been recognized in the 2026 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards is a nationwide program that honors outstanding achievement in high school visual and literary arts, celebrating creativity, originality, and technical skill.
The three levels of recognition include:
- Gold Key: The very best works submitted to local programs. Gold Key recipients are automatically considered for national-level recognition.
- Silver Key: Standout works demonstrating exceptional ability.
- Honorable Mention: Accomplished works showing great skill and potential.
We are proud to celebrate the following students for their remarkable accomplishments in both art and writing.
Art Awards:
Sophia Chen ’26
- Gold Key: Painting, Anatomy of an Art Room’s Cupboards
- Gold Key: Painting, Under Sun
Haley Duong ’26
- Silver Key: Photography, Currents of the Border
Lily Murphy ’26
- Gold Key: Digital Painting, Drawing & Collage, The Heron and the Fish
- Honorable Mention: Painting, Technicolor Beta
- Honorable Mention: Digital Painting, Drawing & Collage, Madame Mystique
Avni Pande ’26
- Honorable Mention: Photography, The Flower At Its End
- Honorable Mention: Photography, Red In the Wild
- Silver Key: Photography, The Flowers for a Corpse
Kayla Rippie ’26
- Silver Key: Painting, Sweet and Salty
Anika Chandra ’27
- Gold Key: A Bridge in San Francisco
- Gold Key: Bourse de Commerce
- Silver Key: अयोध्या में गाय
- Silver Key: Iguana in Cancún
- Honorable Mention: Held
- Honorable Mention: Yuya
- Honorable Mention: Mountain Climber
Aviva Kaplan ’27
- Silver Key: Painting, I Entered the Void and It Was All Milk
Yige (Yoyo) Lu ’27
- Honorable Mention: Photography, Drops
- Honorable Mention: Photography, Blue Illusion
- Honorable Mention: Photography, Lightning
Kayla (Kai) Simpson ’27
- Honorable Mention: Photography, Is This Empathy?
Lisa Tang ’27
- Honorable Mention: Drawing, Where the Wind Changes
Emily Wang ’27
- Honorable Mention: Drawing, 40 Days
Louisa Yin ’28
- Honorable Mention: Drawing, Lotus in Water
Amelia Regard ’29
- Gold Key: Painting, Black Cat
Xiaoran Yan ’29
- Silver Key: Photography, Glitch
Writing Awards:
Sophia Chen ’26
- Silver Key: Personal Essay & Memoir, A Kitchen Inheritance
Ella Esplin ’26
- Silver Key: Critical Essay, The Gendered Dynamic of Romantic Love in The Iliad and Sappho's Poetry
- Silver Key: Critical Essay, The Role of Red Scare Era Anti-Communist Film in the Criminalization of the Communist Party
- Honorable Mention: Poetry, my apartment in New York City on the 21st floor
Stefano Guo ’26
- Honorable Mention: Speculative Fiction, A Eating Guide to [Censored]
Yee-Yee Li ’27
- Silver Key: Poetry, american as apple pie
- Honorable Mention: Poetry, views from a trolley track
Sophie Smith ’27
- Silver Key: Poetry, The Creek And I
Lisa Tang ’27
- Silver Key: Poetry, brown butter chocolate chip cookies
Eileen Wang ’27
- Gold Key: Poetry, Unit Test
- Silver Key: Poetry, columned in
- Honorable Mention: Poetry, braided
Joyce Chen ’28
- Silver Key: Short Story, Lamby
Cayla Goh ’28
- Honorable Mention: Personal Essay & Memoir, Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum)
Lingxi Kong ’28
- Gold Key: Short Story, Starboy
- Silver Key: Personal Essay & Memoir, A Letter to Fiscus Benghalensis
Sarah-Angelica Tarka ’28
- Gold Key: Poetry, A Dance With: Perfection
- Silver Key: Poetry, To Be Made Of Memories
- Honorable Mention: Poetry, apples
Amelia Nicklas ’29
- Honorable Mention: Poetry, Questions, Late at Night
- Honorable Mention: Short Story, A Red Afternoon
Elise Skawinski ’29
- Gold Key: Memoir, Flags on My Cheeks
Baldwin applauds these students for their dedication, imagination, and artistic excellence. Their achievements reflect not only their individual talent but also the vibrant creative community at Baldwin. We look forward to seeing how their voices and visions continue to shape the arts in the years ahead.
