Every year the AAAC awards scholarships to three graduating art students at EO Smith High School – one for the performing arts, one for the visual arts and one for literary arts as well as an art scholarship to a student at Windham Technical High School. These students are chosen because they have taken two or more courses in their area; exhibited enthusiasm, interest, honesty, and integrity; and produced quality work viewed or open to the public. The recipients plan on pursuing their interest vocationally or as an avocation.
Keylim Robles Solano
Literary Arts
Windham Tech
Keylim is a twice-published, flash-fiction author through Young Writers of America. In class, she brings her voice, intellect, and honesty to all of her work. Her perfectly crafted, perfectly “her” style of communicating is often hilarious, causing her teacher to question how someone of her age could have such insight. Impacting a reader through words is no easy task, but this student’s writing does just that. Congratulations to Keylim Robles Solano for being recognized as this year’s stand out creative writer.
Sophie Hannah Marcus
Performing Arts
E.O. Smith
Sophie Marcus is an actress and singer who has performed in a variety of musicals and plays. She was most recently Marian Paroo in The Music Man at EO Smith High School. Other roles include Margot Frank in The Diary of Anne Frank at the Bradley Playhouse, for which she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Play (non-professional) by Broadway World CT. Sophie also sings in The EO Smith Chamber Singers and this year was selected for the American Choral Director’s Association Eastern Region Conference
Sophie will attend the University of Connecticut where she will double-major in Theater and Human Rights.
Jay Dale Kopek
Visual Arts
E.O. Smith
Hello I’m Jay! I grew up in Stafford Springs, CT and moved away when I was 12. My plan after high school is to attend Parsons, The New School of Art and Design, it’s placed in New York City! I hope to major in Fine arts and minor in photography. Art
has been something I’ve always loved even when I was 6 years old, and as I grew older it became an outlet for emotions that I couldn’t describe. Art has helped me grow emotionally and has challenged me in ways most can’t. I’m excited to see how far my art takes me within the next few years.
Dakota Lynn Cathrine Ingaran
Literary Arts/ E.O. Smith
I first started writing when my kindergarten teacher gifted me a bright highlighter-pink notebook. I relit that torch with the Creative Writing and Performance course offered at E.O. Smith. After Freshman year I continued to improve my writing skills, moving from genre to genre, and eventually settling down in the cozy small town of poetry. I am currently taking the AD Creative Writing 2 where I have been exploring concrete poetry. Although my major at Eastern will be secondary education and mathematics I will continue to write in my free time and will take some further related classes as electives given my schedule allows it.