British School of Boston Student Honored with Scholastic Art Award

For Brookline student Aleksia Silverman, photography is a way of capturing memories.

Vacations and other trips often result in thousands of pictures on her camera, and her computer is always filling up with new images.

And now, her work is getting noticed.

Silverman, a high school junior at the British School of Boston in Jamaica Plain, was honored this week with a gold key from the regional Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, a national scholarship competition for creative teens.

“I really like how you can keep memories,” Silverman said of photography. “I really do look back through them, I can remember being where I took them, and think about how I miss the place.”

Silverman entered two photographs in the competition, earning a gold key for her photograph titled, “August,” and an honorable mention for her photograph titled, “Summertime.”

Silverman was traveling through Alaska, visiting a salmon farm, when she took her gold key-winning photograph.

The gold key means her work was judged in the top 7 percent of all submissions in her category, and sends her photograph on to the national level of the Scholastic competition.

Silverman has long been interested in art, and has been taking photos for years. Receiving national recognition for her work from Scholastic, she said, would be a great accomplishment.

“I just chose photos that I was really proud of,” she said of her decision to submit artwork to the Scholastic awards. “It’s really cool.”

The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards have a long legacy in the United States, dating back to 1923. Over the years, the awards have become the longest-running and most prestigious recognition program for creative teens in the U.S.

Past winners include Andy Warhol, Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote, Robert Redford, Stephen King and John Updike.

As a regional gold key winner, Silverman’s photography will be on display at Boston City Hall, from March 7-30. Judging for the national competition will be held in April.

The British School of Boston uses rigorous international curricula to educate students from toddlerhood through high school at its 40-acre Jamaica Plain site, culminating in the highly sought-after International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB Diploma).