Winners of the Expressions Challenge by Walgreens were announced during a virtual awards ceremony on Thursday, May 19 at 6 p.m. CT. Expressions gave high school students a chance to express themselves on a variety of topics in Visual Arts, Spoken Word, and Media Arts, while competing for over $20,000 in prizes! New this year is a first ($2,000), second ($1,750), and third ($1,500) place winner in each category. In addition, the People’s Champ award is back, the artwork that receives the most votes by the public via social media. One People’s Champ per category won a $1,000 prize! Two heritage awards were given to students in Chicago and St. Louis, the two cities where the Expressions Challenge originated.
Fourteen students won prizes after creating artistic works on everything from mental health, self-esteem, stress, dreams and more. Four teacher champions won awards for encouraging students to enter the competition. Here is the full list of winners:
Visual Arts
- First Place: (Avoidance) Isabela Arca, Van Nuys High School, Sherman Oaks, CA
- Second Place: (Cyclic) Deeksha Bompada, Independence High School, Frisco, TX
- Third Place: (Helping Hands) Chloe Jung, Bergen County Academies, Closter, New Jersey
Media Arts
- First Place: (Why is She Never Enough?) Emma Stevens, Gorham High School, Gorham, ME
- Second Place: (Success Under Stress) Curan Bassingthwaite and Alexandra Light, Gorham High School, Gorham, ME
- Third Place: (Break Free) Vegas Chiddick, Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, Bronx, NY
Spoken Word
- First Place: (Keep Dreaming Kid) Makhia Smith, Central High School, Memphis, TN
- Second Place: (Let Your Life Speak) Cydney Brown, Abington Friends School, Philadelphia
- Third Place: (Be a Man) Zachary Emmons, Gorham High School, Gorham, ME
People’s Champs
- Visual Arts: (My Soul is Awakened) Lilit Hovsepyan, Kealakehe High School, Captain Cook, HI
- Media Arts: (The Unhappy Birthday) Yanelly Castellanos, ASPIRA Early College High School, Chicago, IL
- Spoken Word: (Perfection) Erin Castonguay, Gorham High School, Gorham, ME
Heritage Awards
- Chicago: (Death and Life of an Overachiever), Raina Ford, Fenwick High School, Bollingbrook, IL
- Louis: (My Mind’s Ablaze) Abigail Nguyễn, Parkway South High School, Baldwin, MO
Teacher Champions
- East/Northeast: Lucinda Stein, Gorham High School, Gorham, ME
- South: Austin Dorval, Edgewater High School, Orlando, FL
- Midwest: Mary Rossi, Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences, Chicago, IL
- West: Dana Ziegler, Arbor View High School, Las Vegas, NV
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