North Hills School District student, teacher accolades

Tribune-Review | Tuesday, February 22, 2022 7:01 a.m.

Metro Creative

Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

Nineteen works of art and writing created by 11 North Hills students were chosen to receive Scholastic Art and Writing Awards this year.

The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards honors students in grades seven through 12 in 28 categories of art and writing.

Entries are selected for awards without knowledge of the student’s gender, age, ethnicity or hometown by some of the foremost leaders in the visual and literary arts. They look for works that exemplify originality, technical skill and the emergence of a personal voice or vision.

Gold Key is the competition’s highest ranking, followed by Silver Key and Honorable Mention.

This year, North Hills Middle School eighth grader Keelin McKiernan was chosen to receive a Gold Key for her photograph “Levitate,” and eighth grader Alexa Soltis was chosen to receive a Gold Key for her personal essay.

North Hills’ honorees are as follows:

Gold Key

Photograph, “Levitation,” Keelin McKiernan, grade 8

Personal Essay, “April 12th,” Alexa Soltis, grade 8

Silver Key

Digital drawing, “I’m Late,” Veronica Yeschke, grade 12

Painting “Sunset” – Hanlin Zhang, grade 12

Photograph, “Old News,” Lilly Larkin, grade 9

Sculpture, “Untitled,” Wren Lesnoski, grade 8

Poetry, “Half Full,” Lilly Larkin, grade 9

Short Story, “Flora,” Lilly Larkin, grade 9

Honorable Mention

Drawing, “Reaching for Something New,” Veronica Yeschke, grade 12

Digital drawing, “Ali,” Hanlin Zhang, grade 12

Drawing, “Flourishing Age,” Hanlin Zhang, grade 12

Painting, “Colorful Me,” Hanlin Zhang, grade 12

Photograph, “Decay,” Lilly Larkin, grade 9

Painting, “Bright Ideas,” Keelin McKiernan, grade 8

Painting, Paige Murray, grade 8

Photograph, “Levitating Tomatoes,” Edie Dalessandro, grade 8

Photograph, “In the Shadows,” Erika Decker, grade 8

Photograph, “Shadow Bloom,” Connor Guttman, grade 8

Flash Fiction, “Tick Tock: The Sound of My Downfall,” Adelaide Seigworth, grade 8

The art students will be recognized in a special ceremony March 19 at Seneca Valley High School at 11:30 a.m.

An in-person ceremony honoring the writers will not be held this year. Alexa Soltis’ personal essay, however, will be entered at the national level, and the middle school will be notified of the outcome in March.

Teacher of the Year finalist

Joseph Welch, an eighth grade history teacher at North Hills Middle School, was named one of four finalists for National Teacher of the Year by the Council of Chief State School Officers.

Welch previously was named CCSSO’s Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year. He has taught at North Hills School District for 15 years and served as seventh and eighth grade team leader for more than 10 years. Welch was named the 2020 Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year, the 2019 National Middle Level Educator of the Year by the Association for Middle Level Education, as well as the 2019 Pennsylvania Social Studies Teacher of the Year. In 2018, he was honored as National History Teacher of the Year by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

If named National Teacher of the Year, Welch will spend the next year serving as an ambassador for education and an advocate for teachers and students across the country.