Juniors Ali and Jason Meizels each received visual art endowments to pursue art over summer break this year. Ali received The Patricia Rosoff Fellowship for Media Arts and Jason received The Courtney Donnell Fellowship.
The Courtney Donnell Fellowship was created in 2003 and in their reunion, the peers of Courtney Donnell ‘63 made this endowment in her honor. Every summer since 2004, a rising senior who shows interest in visual arts is chosen by the media arts faculty to take part of a summer program at School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC).
Jason will go to SAIC this June for two weeks and take the comics and graphic novel design course. Jason said that he is very excited for this opportunity, and he has taken art courses at KO whenever he had the opportunity to.
“I’ve always kind of drawn stuff and been into art, since I was young, I would draw whenever I could and whatever I could,” he said. “I’ve always enjoyed drawing superheros, and more of that fantastical genre, so it sounded like a cool opportunity.”
Jason said that he believes that with all of the movies that are coming out, there is just a lot of going on where art is becoming a more interesting and viable career. “I think the movies might be helping popularizing the characters and that storytelling,” he said.
Creative Arts teacher Scott McDonald said that this endowment has gone to a student who is very serious about visual arts and has taken a number of courses (including portfolio prep).
Furthermore, the recipient is talented and who Mr. McDonald thinks would benefit from a more advanced program. “He is talented, he is very interested in art and in practically in the kind of art that he really likes, and we thought he would get a lot out of it,” he said. “We want someone who can both handle it and grow a lot and he is definitely somebody who fits that description.”
The Patricia Rosoff Fellowship for Media Arts was an anonymous donation in 2007 named after faculty member Patricia Rosoff, and is geared towards media arts. The fellowship is given to a specific student every year who has taken many media art courses, including graphic arts, photography (one and two), and any independent studies.
Creative Arts teacher Greg Scranton that the selection is based on the student’s portfolio in their junior year and who he thinks will benefit most from additional experiences.
He said that some people are good at things, but don’t want to continue doing it, but some people are okay at it and they want to continue.
He said that he sees a bit of both in Ali and that she has drive and wants to continue. “She showed both in the quality in her work and her desire to become a better photographer, those two things together made her an easy choice. So, talent plus drive equals Rosoff fellowship,” he said.
Ali will go to Paris this July with a group of similarly eager arts students for ten days and take a photography program. Ali said that she will be doing sightseeing as well as many photography workshops.
“I’m really excited, I’ve known about the scholarship since my freshman year and I am very thankful for this opportunity,” she said.
Part of the scholarships is that the students have to exhibit their work when they come back, so their work will be displayed in the gallery in the fall. “I’m really excited for both of them to have that experience and I’m excited to see what they come back with,” Mr. McDonald said.
