The Scholastic Art competition is an annual event where talented students submit works of art in hopes of winning prestigious awards. ‘Keys’ are awarded regionally and rank from gold to silver, with honorable mentions handed out as well. After the regional competition within each state, the most outstanding art pieces reach the national round, where scholarship money is handed out. This year, a group of St. X students won two Gold Keys, six Silver Keys, and eight honorable mentions in photography, as well as four honorable mentions in ceramics.
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Joe Tino ’25 and DyLon Boone ’26 were each fortunate enough to receive a Gold Key for their excellence in photography. They will continue on to the national competition and see how their photos do from there.
Joe Tino first got into photography when he would go hunting. While hunting, he wished he could capture the beauty of the landscape around him. This pushed him to try photography, and it has really all been downhill since then. Tino feels very accomplished with his awards and hopes his success will continue.
“I chose Young Love because of the depth it has, and the story behind it,” Tino said.
Boone, who is a student of photography teacher, Ms. Jaffe, gained inspiration through the classes here at St. X. He claims that he wouldn’t be where he is today without his teacher to guide him along the way.
“I feel both honored and surprised to have won,” Boone stated. “I’m quite proud of the accomplishment.”
The sophomore Tiger had to make a tough decision between his ten favorite photographs and eventually submitted six. He took into account every detail that stuck out in each work of art. Out of these six, Q ended up as the Gold Key winner.
“I chose this photograph because it, in my opinion, offered some very unique perspectives,” Boone claimed. “I asked my friend Quinn if he wanted me to take some photos of him at an after party from a dance.”
The odds of receiving a Scholastic Award are low. Only 5-7% of submitted photographs earn a Gold Key and national recognition while around 9% are awarded a Silver Key. Ten Tigers were able to gather awards and recognition with 20 photos, with multiple winning more than one award. The future is bright for these Tigers as they hope to further their talents to bigger things down the road.
