Spring Branch ISD Featured News

Two Stratford High School students are among a record-setting 96 Harris County teen artists and writers in middle or high schools who have earned national Scholastic Art & Writing Medals. They’ve earned the opportunity to attend the June 6 national awards ceremony at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Stratford senior Sophia Early received a national Gold Medal for her realistic-looking painting, titled Pop Art. Bea Jeon, a Stratford junior, earned a national Silver Medal in a drawing & illustration category for her highly detailed work, Because I Am.

Instructors for the two student artists are, respectively, Mary Buys and Jennifer Clouse.

Earlier this year, 46 Spring Branch ISD middle and high school students earned Scholastic Art awards in the annual regional competition sponsored by the Harris County Dept. of Education (HCDE). In HCDE’s competition, 15 SBISD students won Gold Key awards; 14 district students won Silver Key prizes, while 17 more students received Honorable Mention recognition.

Stratford’s Sophia Early and Bea Jeon are among 2,600 teens nationally receiving Scholastic Art honors this year. In 2019, more than 340,000 teens submitted art and writing entries in 29 categories through their teachers for regional and national judging.

In Harris County, two students from high schools in Cy-Fair and Pearland ISDs won top prizes, $10,000 high school senior scholarships. Two other teen artists from Pasadena ISD and the Village School were recipients of American Visions and Voices awards, for two best of class, Gold Medal distinctions.

“We celebrate the creativity of all of our Harris County students and the dedication of their mentoring teachers,” HCDE Superintendent James Colbert Jr. said in a news release issued by the department.

Also sharing the limelight this year with SBISD’s Early and Jeon are students from Houston, Tomball, Klein, Katy, Alief, Galena Park, Spring and Aldine ISDs. Students enrolled in nine area private schools earned Scholastic Art honors this year, too. 

Founded in 1923, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards remain the longest-running, most prestigious educational initiative of its kind supporting students in the visual and literary fields. Previous winners have included Andy Warhol, Kay Walkingstick, Sylvia Plath, Stephen King, Richard Avedon and Zac Posen.