Congratulations, Mrs. Nash, MI Youth Arts Festival 2010 Arts Administrator of the Year!

Retiring Principal Janet Harris Nash was named the MI Youth Arts Festival Arts Administrator of the Year for 2010, receiving her award at the MYAF annual Festival at Western Michigan University on May 14.

Mrs. Nash was deeply honored to be named as the "MYAF Arts Administrator", a recognition granted for the first time ever by the MYAF organizational board. The MYAF is a state-wide convocation in May of each year for some of the most talented and promising youth artists and teachers from high schools around the state.

Of particular joy to Mrs. Nash was the honor coming in a year when over 25 SASA students qualified to attend the MYAF as student finalists in areas of dance, visual arts, creative writing and music. Many of her students and SASA parents and faculty were in the audience to offer applause highlighting their appreciation and recognition as she was called to the stage of Miller auditorium to receive her award following the MYAF honorees' dinner. Mrs. Nash gratefully thanked the MYAF Board, their Board Member Ruth Ann Knapp who nominated her, the administration of the School District of Saginaw, her SASA community, and her husband, Jack, and her two children, Philip and Gretchen, for supporting her years of efforts on behalf of the arts in Saginaw. She noted that the arts program at SASA has now grown to serve students from over 5 counties in mid-Michigan, and has continued to do so in spite of rising milege costs and other economic hardships for many parents and students. "We may have science and mathematics and industry to thank for much of what has made this country great," she said, "but it is the humanities and the arts that bring joy to our souls to enrich our lives and sustain our hearts."

Congratulations Mrs. Nash, from all of us at SASA, and best wishes to you in all your future experiences in retirement!

SASA Students Claim Honors at State Science Fair for Michigan at Kettering University

Ten students from SASA were invited by SCSEF adjudication to attend the Michigan State Science and Engineering Fair at Kettering University on Saturday, April 10, 2010. Outstanding recognition was awarded to the following:
br> Alexandriya M. Emonds - $20,000 Scholarship to Kettering University, payable as $5,000 per year for four years;
D'Montae Jones - Grand Award Winner -- received a certificate, medal and an all-expense paid trip to San Jose, CA (May 9-15, 2010) where he will compete in the International Science and Engineering Fair;
Nicole Smith - First Place winner received a certificate and a $150 US Savings Bond;
Magda Hlavacek - Fourth Place Winner received a certificate and a $50 US Savings Bond;
Alexandriya Emonds - United States Army certificate, $100;
DMontae Jones - United States Navy certificate, $75, Medallion;
Andrea Pugh - Ricoh Corporation certificate as state fair winner;
Nicole Smith - United States Department of Commerce, Oceans and Atmosphere certificate, booklet and United States Navy certifcate, $75, medallion;
Sam J Wilkins - United States Army certificate, $50.

An excited exclamation from Saginaw County Science Fair Director Mrs. Mary Allen, "This is absolutely outstanding!" Congratulations to all of these students and others who qualified to compete at the state fair.

Many SASA Students Gain Natonal Recognition Through Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

Congratulations are in order for the SASA Visual and Language Arts students with regard to the Scholastic Art and Writing 2010 Awards. The Gold Key is the most prestigious of these awards, and pieces earning Gold Key Awards for art were placed on exhibit at the Belin-Blank Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development at the University of Iowa from March 7 through March 31, 2010. Gold Key Award winners were recognized at the opening of the show. Portfolios and individual pieces earning Gold Key Awards are forwarded to New York City for further judging and possible exhibition.

Visual Arts Awards

797 students submitted 1866 pieces of art for adjudication in the “Region-At-Large” competition consisting of 12 participating states.

Awards from the SASA 2-D Visual Arts Class – Teacher Becky Prine Sullivan include:
Gold Key Awards: Portfolio of 8 pieces – Marianne Elizalde – Grade 12; Portfolio of 8 pieces – Danny Millar – Grade 12; Monster #1 – Drawing - Marianne Elizalde – Grade 12; Coke Bottle – Drawing - Marianne Elizalde – Grade 12; Mother Earth – Drawing - Marianne Elizalde – Grade 12; Prismatic Reflections; Personal Deceptions – Drawing - Danny Millar – Grade 12; Smoker – Nicolas Sarmiento – Painting - Grade 12; Infant Swallowings – Painting - Sydney Veverka – Grade 10.

Additional Silver Key Awards from the 2-D Visual Arts Class – Teacher Becky Prine Sullivan include:
Portfolio of 8 pieces – Nicolas Sarmiento – Grade 12; Urban Angst – Drawing - Marianne Elizalde - Grade 12; Reaching Happiness - Batik – Marianne Elizalde – Grade 12; Nelophobia – Painting - Danny Millar - Grade 12; Weeping Woman – Painting - Anna Mahan – Grade 10; Alienation – Painting – Jalita Patton Grade – 10;

Honorable Mention Awards, 2D Art, Becky Prine Sullivan, Instructor:
Portfolio of 8 Pieces – Brianna Fulmer – Grade 12; Move Over – Drawing - Brianna Fulmer – Grade 12; Pensive to the Point of Perplexity – Painting - Brianna Fulmer – Grade 12; His Last Word was “Moo” – Painting - Danny Millar – Grade 12; Manifestation of Imagination – Drawing - Danny Millar – Grade 12; (Alexander Graham) Bell Sent a Letter, He Wants His Phone Back – Drawing - Danny Millar – Grade 12; A Day at the Zoo – Drawing - Nicholas Sarmiento – Grade 12.

Senior Danny Millar will attend the prestigious MI Youth Atrs Festival at WMU in May. His work will be exhibited in the Governor's Traveling Show (Top 30 in state), and was adjudicated in the Top 18 in the state.

Awards from the 3-D Visual Arts Class – Teacher Sally Allan include:
Gold Key Awards: Play Ball – Ceramics – Ce’ Erica Roland-Ferguson – Grade 9; Orb of Confusion – Ceramics – Donovan Webb – Grade 11.

Silver Key Awards, 3-D Art, Sally Allan, Instructor: Sharpie Monstrosity – Mixed Media – Audrey Berkan – Grade 10; Double Stuffed – Mixed Media – Donovan Webb – Grade 11; Heavenly Bodies – Ceramics – April Weber – Grade 12; Black Horse – Ceramics – Michelle Perry – Grade 12; Tea Puzzle – Ceramics – Austin Kemp – Grade 10. Honorable Mention awards, 3-D Art, Sally Allan, Instructor: The God of Corn – Ceramics – Donovan Webb – Grade 10; Teapot 2009 – Ceramics – Michelle Perry – Grade 12; Grace – Ceramics – Julius Woo – Grade 12.



Language Arts Awards

Over 900 entries were submitted to the Multi-state Writing Regional competitions. Students were invited to the Regional Scholastic Art & Writing Awards ceremony and the Gold Key Art Exhibit, held at the DesMoines State Historical Building on Sunday, March 7, 2010. The multi-state regional program celebrates both young artists and young writers. All Scholastic Art and Writing award winners present were honored on stage.

2010 Language Arts Scholastic Writing Awards, Instructor Rachel Reid, SASA's \Language Arts Concentration 11/12 Grade class included:

Silver Key Award: “Bicycles”-Short Short Story- Ben Beltran- Grade 11.

Honorable Mention Awards: “My Grandmother’s Afghan” – Poetry- Carley Veverka- Grade 11.

Following is an excerpt from SASA’s Silver Key Award winner Ben Beltran’s Short Short Story, “Bicycles.”

Glass shattered, falling down like sharp raindrops onto the sidewalk. The door was now an empty frame. A man strolled through it. In his large fist was a wooden baseball bat. He walked casually into the bicycle shop, to the wall by the register. On a small box he typed in a code, putting an end to the high-pitched alarm that had been ringing. Then the man strolled over to the first aisle. He lifted the bat, swinging it upward in one hand. He swung down. The wood struck the thin metal crossbar of a Huffy. He swung again, and again. The deafening sound of metal crying out echoed throughout the shop. The man’s eyes shifted in every direction. He made his way through the short aisles, slashing everything with his bat.

Beads of sweat emerged on the tops of his brows. He swung rhythmically like a pendulum, from left to right. The bikes fell feebly to the ground and their tires slowly shriveled. They reminded him of his son’s bike, bent and deformed, lying in the road.

Within a few minutes, he had made his way to the back. In front of him was a Schwinn. It was a sparkling, navy blue like the ocean, or a night sky speckled with starlight. It had a soft leather seat and padded handlebars that stretched outward in each direction and curled back delicately. The bat dropped to the ground, bouncing on the hard white floor…



Excerpt from SASA’s Honorable Mention winner Carley Veverka’s poem, “My Grandmother’s Afghan”:

It started with my grandmother.
She wove it into our lives
the same way she wove us all an afghan blanket.
Clumsily,
sipping stale coffee and watching late-night TV.

They were itchy.
Mine was an ugly shade of purple,
like grapes that had gone bad in the bottom of a plastic bag.
But every night it wrapped me up,
a violet burrito,
and I slept soundly…



2010 Scholastic Language Arts Writing Awards given to entries from Jared Morningstar’s SASA Grade Language Arts 9/10 Concentration class include:

Excerpt from Honorable Mention winner Lauren Ingram’s poem collection, “Falsifier”:

Lies exude out of you,
Smooth and easily like a stream,
You're oblivious to your ailment,
Eventually the truth smacks you in the face,
It’s so unyielding, you don’t know what to do…



Excerpt from Honorable Mention winner Hope Kemerer’s poem, “Picture Book”:

I open the picture book
My fingers leaving marks on the dusty cover
The first picture is taken from a bird’s-eye view
We are about three years old lying in the grass
I’m wearing a white dress splotched with chocolate ice cream
Both of us smiling a gapped tooth grin…


Congratulations to SASA's dedicated students for their many hours of hard work on these awarded pieces, and congratulation also to their teachers, Becky Sullivan, Sally Allan, Rachel Reid and Jared Morningstar for their mentoring and instructional support in pursuit of excellence!

SASA Named Silver Medalist School in U.S.News and World Report for Second Year in a Row

In December 2009, the Saginaw Arts and Sciences Academy was again named among the top 2.2% high schools in the nation, and this year was the sole recognized high school in Saginaw County in the 2009 “U.S. News and World Report Top U.S. High Schools” ranking report.

In all, twenty high schools in Michigan were recognized with silver or gold medal standings.

The ranking, which began in 2007, is released annually to recognize the achievements of American High Schools that achieve highly in preparing significant number of seniors well for college readiness, as evidenced by quality performance on Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate exams. The index also measures school performance in achievement for minority and economically disadvantaged students at a rate comparable to white and higher income students. SASA was elevated from a bronze medal winner in 2008 to silver medal and remains as a silver medalist winner this year due to continuing progress in the areas mentioned above.

Congratualtions to SASA's students, faculty and parents for making SASA a standout program in all of Mid-Michigan!

2009 ICONS Recognized Once Again as Gold Medalist Publication

The 2009 issue of ICONS earned a Gold Medalist Award in adjudication by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association at Columbia University in New York. This is the highest honor bestowed to high school and college art and literary magazines in the first round of judging. The magazine earned 972/1000 possible points. In addition ICONS was recognized with three of three possible All Columbian Awards for excellence in organization, content and design. The All Columbian Awards indicate that the magazine has scored at or above the 95th percentile in relation to other publications from across the nation and the world. As the result of earning a Gold Medalist Award, ICONS qualifies to move onto the final round of judging for Crown Awards which rewards the top 1% of publications.

The judges' comments relating to the written pieces included: "wonderful alliteration", "the visual imagery and word choice is outstanding; the vocabulary evokes the senses". With regard to the visual art selections, the judges' statements included: "The quality of the art throughout the magazine is excellent", "the detail captured in each piece is amazing", "the multi-layered effect in so many images is outstanding". Overall the critique indicated that ICONS was a "top-notch magazine, a reader's visual and verbal treat!"

ICONS is 100% student produced under the guidance of advisers Becky Prine Sullivan and Jared Morningstar. In addition, Sandra Darland of the District's Information Services Department is involved with instruction of computer technology and instruction related to the printing of the publication.

ICONS Student staff:
Brianna Fulmer - Editor-in-Chief; Marianne Elizalde - Artistic Director; Jessica Walker - Assistant Editor;
Layout Staff: Austin Kemp, Sydney Veverka,
Photography: Chris Reuther, Hannah Vitu, Vicki Wieland,
Prose and Poetry Editors: Portia Brown, Nickolette De Clerk, Katie Francis, Jacob Gorski, Katie Pope, Chris Reuther.

© 2010 Saginaw Arts & Sciences Academy
1903 N. Niagara St. • Saginaw, MI 48602 • Tel: (989) 399-5500 • Fax: (989) 399-5515 • Email Us