Hawkins student artist wins prestigious Scholastic award previously won by Warhol, Redford

HAWKINS, Texas (KLTV) - A small 2A East Texas school continues to come up with winners on a big stage.

A student from Hawkins ISD has won a gold medal in a prestigious national competition, one that some famous people before him have won.

Hawkins High School junior Jaykob Dodd recently was notified that he had won a national gold medal at the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards.

“At first they sent something in the mail and it was a gold key. And I thought that was probably for the regional one that I won a couple weeks prior. It said that I won the national award,” Dodd says.

“The scholastic art and writing contest is the largest and most prestigious art contest in the country. It’s celebrating its 100th anniversary. Former alumni include artists such as Andy Warhol, Robert Redford, and writers such as Stephen King and Truman Capote,” says Jaykob’s digital media teacher Elizabeth White.

Dodd had to go through considerable competition before he qualified for national.

His entry was a clever use of nature.

“Started off just merging pine cones with people. It kind of looks like mother and father nature. Just created what I think is a beautiful picture of one person with pine cones for hair, the other that has a waterfall on her hand,” he says.

The small 2A school was fresh off of winning 19 blue ribbons at the Houston livestock show and rodeo, and now are celebrating again.

“Jaykob is a very talented young man in a lot of areas, with a very bright future ahead of him,” White says.

All gold medal winners will be invited to New York City in June to be recognized at Carnegie Hall for their achievements.

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