National Art Honor Society

The National Art Honor Society, more commonly known at NAHS, is a club where students in grades 9-12 can volunteer to spread their love of art throughout the community and beyond. We are similar to the more widely known National Honor Society (NHS) in the fact that NAHS requires a certain amount of volunteer hours except all of our volunteer hours are art-related. The club is fairly new, but we have big plans for this year with projects such as, elementary school art workshops, face painting fundraisers, and murals in the works.

Being involved in clubs and activities while at DCHS has allowed me to grow and mature as a person and as a student. With the various clubs and activities I am involved in (Art Club, Book Club, Debate, GSA, Ladies Community Outreach, National Honors Society, Scholar’s Bowl, and Young Life), I’ve become more confident, outgoing, helpful, open-minded, and have met new people who I’ve come to be friends with.

Although the continuation of mastering subjects can provide a building of previous skills, experiences outside of comfortable environments in creative learning catalyze self-improvement. In the art world, Michelangelo was an artist who became famous for his prolific sculpting, such as his depiction of the religious figure, David. Despite public fame in the art society for his sculptured renderings, Michelangelo continued to challenge himself and pursued other artistic forms such as painting. And his creative experimenting paid off not only in accomplishing a self-improvement, but also growing his artistic recognition. Similarly taking on challenges in the art world, this school year, I choose to take AP Art History. I began the class with limited knowledge consisting of only basic facts. However, as the semester progressed, I began to become familiar with the subject and started to notice that i could interpret pieces of art beyond a basic analysis. By making the personal choice to experiment in a subject I knew little about, I was exposed to an entirely different view of humanity; and therefore, improved my individual growth. Additionally, exploration separate from comfortable settings in physical activities creates

to keep up with emerging trends in the gaming industry. Combining my 3 years of

I wanted to be a traditional studio artist for a while but I was disuaded when I learned about just how hard it is to find success. I then wanted to be an art teacher. I at first wanted to teach little kids art as I could teach them about how fun it was to just sit and draw but at the same time I wanted to challenge people to think more abstractly or at the very least, to think more creatively, so I began considering doing art for older kids. Then I just figured out I’m not very personable or very patient to teach kids, of any age really. I began considering entirely different careers to follow, like a historian for example, but that was when I discovered video games. I’ve played video games before but I didn’t really figure that they were as complex upon initial inspection. What I mean is I looked at video games for a while as little more than maybe a board game and my line of thinking was “Well, people don’t have businesses like Monopoly Inc. or The Candyland Co. and i’ve never heard of any of the companies that popped up on the screens before the title card so ya.”

I have piles upon piles of sketches crammed in folders and scribbled in sketchbooks, spread throughout every available storage space in my room. I have art as far back as kindergarten, when suns in the corners and stick-figures were the thing of the day; I was proud of those drawings. As I got older, my perspective began to twist and I was no longer proud of the what I created, and I barely kept any drawings at the end of each year. Before the start of middle school, I began considering throwing out all my art supplies and quitting my talent. I thought that I could pursue a career in academics instead.

Did you know that students that study art are more likely to be recognized for academic achievement? Art has been part of our life since we were little; we used to draw our family, pets, or paint in a coloring book. Nevertheless, at some point of our lives, we stop doing this either because of lack of interest or lack of support from our parents. The organization of Creative Kids Inc. (2016) is trying to solve the problem of lack of support for young artists. A possible solution for this issue is giving parents information about the developmental benefits of art that children can have as visual learning, self-esteem, and motor skills.

I have been trying to figure out what career I've wanted since freshman year. I loved video games, so I decided I wanted to be a game designer. I took classes in art, app development, and had planned to take an advanced programming class this year. I also wanted to start my own game development company, so I took business classes as well. I had even developed a business plan in Youth Entrepreneurs for my dream company and won second in my class allowing me to compete in the regional competition. Unfortunately, after a few years, I had slowly stopped playing video games and soon realized I had lost my passion to make them.

I’m at this great point in my life where there has been a collision between time, desire, and confidence in my art. I have fewer distractions, more tenacity, and more to say. I have more wisdom, and certainly hope that I can continue to say that. I’ve had some recognition in the past couple of years, and more this year. It’s exciting because I feel like my work and persistence are paying off. I want to build on those

I think that I have an excellent balance of academic and artistic skills. Since 7th grade, I have taken an art class. This class creates a soothing break from my academic classes that improves my inventiveness. I try to express my creative side through my art work. Through several art projects, I get to expand and explore my artistic ability. Art, to me, is a form of communication. It communicates my thoughts and imagination in ways school, grades, and scores cannot. It is a complex matter and is not easy to fully clarify. Furthermore, outside of art class, I use my creativity for art projects in other classes. I try to incorporate it into a majority of my classes. Additionally, I have an interest in art that is demonstrated through extracurricular

I stood in a gymnasium with over 700 other art pieces on display. I can still feel my stomach drop in amazement when seeing my drawing hung up in a glass case with a huge best ­in ­show ribbon dangling from the side. It was the annual conference art competition, and my third year of participating. Additionally, it was an extremely proud moment for me knowing my hours of work and long nights without sleep had payed off. Taking first out of the whole competition marked a gratifying moment in my life. Reflecting over the past few years, I understood why making art is such a big part of me.

First of all, because my mother was an artist herself, I have always been inspired to draw like her. Some may say art runs through genetics, and I completely agree. However, as I aged, my art improved. For that reason, I won an agenda designing contest in eighth grade. In addition to that, I became nominated by my Elementary school Art Teacher for UD for Kids.

Even though I have dedicated my life to the pursuit of art and art education, I have always cherished and loved learning; with the help of others around me, I have gained a true enthusiasm for education. With both my parents being teachers I have learned to persevere in the face of demanding assignments; because even when

The day after graduating high school I sat on the floor of my room, with a note pad in my hand to make sure I made the most out of my words, and stutter the least, and the phone in the other to call what was then my dream college. The call ended with me in tears. I couldn’t attend college because I was too young; I needed to be at least 16. Spending a semester on what felt as not moving forward frustrated me.

My career goals as a professional video game developer who owns a game studio are something that I have dreamed about for as long as I can remember. While I have had some bumps in the road of my career choices (what high school kid hasn't?), the only thing that I have consistent passion, commitment, and devotion for are video games. I got my first video game when I was five on the Gameboy Advance, and ever since then, I have been permanently addicted. While my taste for games has changed, my intense craving for them has not subsided, and in fact, it has only grown. As I got older over the years I began to learn more about how they work, who made them, and what processes are used to publish them. I even did a project on them in 8th grade about the history of video games and its effects on modern culture. Now, as an adult, I wish to take my adoration for video games to the next level: and that is where The Art Institute of California (Player 2) joins the game.