Congratulations to all of the MSA students recognized in the 2024 Creative Youth Awards! The Bay Area-wide competition received over 1,800 submissions and awarded over $109,000 in cash awards to 592 students! We’re starting with Drawing & Painting and Creative Writing recipients this week, because there are so many, and will announce additional winners next week.
Drawing & Painting
Exceptional Award $200—Robin Goldfarb (’24) “Lucky Strike”
Robin’s art is exploring “How can humanity learn about change through the process of decay?” as one of the pieces for AP Art portfolio, exploring issues of climate change, political power, personal identity, and other aspects of humanity through art. “Lucky Strike,” explores the convergence of climate change, human causes, and nature’s power to grow even in the most desperate landscapes. It’s an observation and a hope,” Robin says.
Special Award $100—Cesar Martinez Lopez (’24) “Erased”
“When loneliness hits, it makes you feel really small. As if no one is out there to help you.
I believe bringing awareness to the clause will someday bring me to a solution. One day, I feel loneliness will one day be gone forever, and it will only be a distant memory,” Cesar says.
Creative Writing
Superior Award $500 (linked below)
• Raymond Rogers (’26) “Echo” [dramatic script]
• Mira Snider (’27) “Sweet Sour Summers” [poem]
Exceptional Award
• Zoe Csizmadia-Zinnes (‘26) “What Nobody Knew”
• Sophia DeMoe (‘25) “Apple Picking”
• Aleshka McPretl (‘24) “Family Lines”
• Juno Phipps (‘27) “Éalú ó Bhiorra”
• Sofia Spinella-Blum (‘26) “Bleeding Glass”
• Maisey Trease (‘26) “Dressed in Passion”
• Jupiter Wilson (‘26) “The Skeleton Woman”
• Alexander Yaitanes (‘25) “Red Planet Memorial”
Special Award
• Moriel Abisdris (‘26) “Beneath the Bleachers”
• Sofia Barker (’24) “Stuck With the Opposite”
• Lilly Braly (‘27) “The System”
• Santana Gil Mbugua (‘25) “Bovine Sacrilegious Encephalopathy”
• Chloe Gillmer (‘26) “The Inevitable Realization That I Do Not Want to Be Forgotten”
• Nina Griffiths (‘26) “Fifteen”
• Valentine Hillary (‘25) & Tiago Moreira (‘25) “Pumpkin Spice”
• Sarah Pryor (‘24) “Prometheus”
• Sage Sagerdahl (‘25) “Sea Change”
• Coleen Smith (‘25) “It is Written”
• Matilda Tomassi (‘25) “House on the Avenue”
• Franny Wada (‘24) “Cut (Citrus)”
• Megan Wien (‘24) “The Oak and Her Daughter”