Everyone always tells you to follow your dreams, and Megan Cox (12) is chasing after hers wholeheartedly. Because of her vigor and relentless determination, she will be going to New York to be awarded for her efforts.
Cox was one of 16 finalists in the National Scholastic Art and Writing Award and one of eight to win a gold medal for her portfolio. This is the highest art award given to students in the nation and is very difficult to achieve. Along with an impressive medal, Cox was awarded a $10,000 scholarship to the college of her choice. Out of about 330,000 students who submitted their portfolios, Cox and only seven others across the nation were special enough to win this prestigious award. She has the opportunity to go to New York to be honored with her fellow winners in a ceremony at Carnegie Hall.
Cox credits most of her ability to reach this level to her art teachers at White Station.
“As soon as I got into 10th grade when I had [Mr. Berlin], I got so much better,” Cox said.
Drawing and other forms of artistic expression have been a passion for Cox since she was a kid, but now she gets to really show the world her skills.
“When she walked in [to my class] and did the first couple of drawings, I could really tell… that she had a lot of technical skills,” Mr. Berlin said.
In three years of teaching Cox, Berlin has been able to watch her fine tune her skills and abilities to become an accomplished artist. In AP Art, students must choose a focus theme that applies to every piece in their portfolio. For her first year of AP Art, Cox chose water on objects as her focus. She drew rainy days and distorted images with watery reflections. Berlin encouraged her to keep this focus for her second year because he was able to see how good she was getting at drawing water. Most artists shy away from drawing water because it is a difficult subject but not Megan.
“If you stick with an idea long enough, you’re gonna really really explore it,” said Berlin.
Her passion for art, raw talent, and influential instructors have allowed Cox to achieve great success even in high school. In college, she wants to study graphic design so that she can have a job doing art with a purpose. Her dream is not to just draw or paint or teach art all day. What she would really prefer is a job with an illustrator.
If any lesson is to be learned from Megan Cox it is that nobody should ever refrain from following your passion because you never know how far it will get you in life.