Samantha Caballero, of Eisenhower High School, is making her mark in the art world. The Sterling Height's student not only earned an American Visions Medal for her painting “Looking Up and Arbitrarily Losing Touch”, but also earned a gold medal for the work, and a silver medal her work "Thursday's Orange".

As an American Voices & Visions winner, Caballero's work was ranked among the top one percent of the more than 300,000 works entered in this year's competition. 
 
Caballero was one of four Utica Community Schools (UCS) students recently honored nationally for excellence in the visual arts.

Also earning a top award was Molly Wittwer, of Shelby Junior High School, who earned a national gold medal for her photograph “Backstage”. Jacob Schick, of Utica High School, earned a silver medal for his drawing “Starring Off". Savannah Salisbury also earned a Silver award for her photograph “Curiosity". 

Students entered the national competition after earning Scholastic Arts Awards regional honors. This year, nearly 200 honors were awarded to UCS students at the regional competition. Nationally, more than 300,000 works of art and writing were entered in the 2020 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, a program founded in 1923. The awards have nurtured the talents of many creative visionaries, including past winners Truman Capote, Lena Dunham, Stephen King, Sylvia Plath, John Updike, and Andy Warhol.

“The UCS art program is an integral part of our students’ academic experiences that nurtures their expression and creativity,” said UCS Superintendent Christine Johns. “As demonstrated by continued state and national recognition, our students’ artwork is consistently at a level that matches work displayed at professional galleries.”