Amellia Hausmann ’21 Wins National Recognition for Art
The outlook for Amellia Hausmann ’21 is bright and sunny these days. She is one of only eight people in the country to earn the Gold Medal Portfolio Award in Art, the highest honor given by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. The prestigious award comes with a $10,000 scholarship. Her work was selected from nearly 2,000 works that received National Medals, and among the 15,000 works that were awarded regionally with Gold Keys.
Her winning portfolio, entitled “Sun Dried,” transports the eye to imagery that captures how sunlight plays with fabric, says Amellia. “I worked to accentuate the warm colors in the faces and to keep the highlights on the fabric crisp to really give the sense of a bright, warm, summer day.
“My overall goal was to utilize the interesting colors and shapes that bright, direct sunlight creates against fabric to create beautiful, nostalgic scenes so that even if the viewer has never experienced the scene, the piece transports them to a warm, familiar environment," says Amellia.
“All of my art is a mixture of inspiration I find from artists I love. I try to always have one realistic element and then the rest I try to experiment,” she says.
In addition to the Gold Medal Portfolio Award, Amellia won a Gold Medal and the American Visions Award for her piece “Colorful Breeze.” She will be recognized during a virtual ceremony in June, and her work will hang in an exhibition in New York City. Now in its 98th year, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are the nation's longest-running and most prestigious scholarship and recognition program for young artists and writers in grades 7–12.
Winning this award, Amellia is in the company of Stephen King, Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote, Andy Warhol, and Amanda Gorman, all notable alumni of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.
Amellia has been at Hutchison since junior kindergarten, with a two-year break in middle school, and says she became serious about art when she entered upper school.
“I’ve always enjoyed art, but I started taking it more seriously once I was in high school. I always liked crafts and creative things growing up, but once I began taking more structured, serious classes like advanced honors drawing during my sophomore year, I began to realize how much I loved it.”
Amellia’s passion for art and creating extends past the classroom. She has her own business outside of school called Art by Amellia where she sells original paintings and takes commissions, which she says includes a lot of custom pet portraits. She will attend Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) next year where she plans to major in User Experience (UX Design), which includes a mixture of technology, marketing, and design. She also wants to minor or double major in painting.
Elizabeth Austin ’20, a junior at Middlebury College in Vermont, has been selected for a Udall Foundation Scholarship. She will receive a $7,000 grant to focus on her research in the emerging field of conservation paleontology.
Rising juniors and seniors who are part of four myExperience cohorts in Hutchison's Institute for Responsible Citizenship – global civic engagement, entrepreneurship, STEM, and art and design – explored their respective fields of study on trips to New York and Boston.
The 15-year student and recent recipient of the Ideal Hutchison Girl Award credits Hutchison for providing opportunities for her to delve deeper into her interests and helping her become a strong student and creative innovator.
The National Merit Finalist and 15-year student has distinguished herself by pursuing challenging academic opportunities in math and science and following her various interests along the way. She credits Hutchison for fostering her intellectual curiosity and love of learning.
Fifteen-year student and National Merit Commended Student Brooke Fair ’23 is an award-winning singer-songwriter who has released an album, an EP, and several singles all before graduating high school. This talented artist also is a dedicated student whose music accomplishments have come while achieving academic success.
Fifteen-year student Emmy Walton ’23 has put her heart into becoming a rocket scientist one day. After developing her interests in science and math through various STEM opportunities at Hutchison, she will follow her dreams at one of the nation’s top schools for engineering, Purdue University.
The National Merit Finalist was challenged by Hutchison’s various academic and extracurricular activities. From the tennis court to the courtroom to the classroom, Sarah is a well-rounded, hardworking Hutchison student who lives up to the school’s mission of inspiring girls to go anywhere they can imagine.
Eve-Elyse Hall ’23 has been known for setting up her teammates on the volleyball court throughout an excellent high school career. Now she’s setting herself up for a bright future after choosing to sign to play volleyball at Asbury University in Kentucky.
Hutchison world language students participated in the 2023 U of M Language Fair, sponsored by The University of Memphis Department of World Languages and Literatures. Demonstrating their knowledge of Spanish and Chinese, Hutchison had a total of 21 students win awards at the fair.
Note to the State of Tennessee: If you want to get legislation passed, put Hutchison girls in charge! Seventeen juniors wrote and presented six bills at the YMCA Youth in Government conference in Nashville. All of the bills made it onto the Senate and House dockets, and one was signed into law.
JK girls aren’t scared of these bones! They were fearless and loved being scientists as they took a closer look at the animal bone collection of Lauren Pharr Parks ’02, alumna and mom to Patty Mae ’36.
Seven upper school students will participate in high-intensity summer programs in subjects including computational physics, international studies, and visual arts at universities across the state.