Senior Zoe Serbin, a writer and artist, recently won two Gold Keys, three Silver Keys, and seven Honorable Mentions from the California Region of The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.

“I was really surprised to hear that I won all of those awards, but I was also pretty excited.  It was my last year to be able to enter into the contest and my parents had a hard time motivating me to do it, but it definitely paid off.”

Zoe has always loved art, however, she became much more enthusiastic about it after she had a concussion her freshman year and wasn’t supposed to do anything else.

“My favorite thing about art is how broad a medium it is. It can be something from a still life oil painting to a page of cartoon sketches on a napkin, but if it can move somebody, then it’s art.  I love that there’s no ‘right’ way of capturing a moment or a feeling.”

This year sophomore Miles Crist won an Honorable Mention in the Film/Animation category in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, a regional program for California students.

The film, “City Series: New York”, also won a Merit Award in Cinematic Arts from the National Young Arts Foundation, placing in the top five percent of applicants in the country.

In addition to these awards, the film was also an Official Selection in the 2013 San Luis Obispo International Film Festival.

“The film is a short city symphony style film, capturing the essence of New York City as it transforms from day to night,” said Miles Crist, “I chose to make this film because I knew I would be visiting New York over the summer and I like New York.”

Miles started filmmaking when he was only nine years old, making stop-motion animations with Legos.

Miles said, “[m]y favorite part about movie making is filming, especially at varying locations. Essentially, production, as opposed to pre-production or coming up with the idea, or post-production editing and color correcting.”