By Claire Ebbitt,
Editor-in-Chief

Some students dress in a certain style to express themselves.

Others have music, which serves as a creative outlet.

Senior Monica Ampolini has visual art that makes her stand out from the rest. She’s been involved with art ever since she can remember.

“I’ve always been interested in art,” she said.

Even though she lives in the district for Mount Tabor High School, Ampolini was eager to come to Reynolds High School for its arts magnet program in her freshman year.

“I got lucky because (my brother) Jude got in,” she said.

Ampolini has certainly utilized the arts magnet program in her time here. She took Intro to Art in ninth grade as the prerequisite course she needed to take additional art classes. As a sophomore, she took Photography and Electronic Media, which was her favorite because she enjoyed using a computer to create different forms of art. In her junior year, Ampolini took Oil Painting, Painting 1 and Drawing 1. She now has Advanced Placement 2D Design at Career Center.

Ampolini’s family is her No. 1 inspiration for her artwork.

“I use (my family members) in my art, and they model a lot for me,” she said.

At a young age, Ampolini looked to her family members who created visual art.

“My granddad did a lot of oil painting, and that exposed me to art,” she said.

Art teacher Ashley Hurst saw Ampolini’s talent when she took his Oil Painting class last year.

“Monica was in a big oil painting class, so it was harder for me to work with students individually, but that was never a problem with her,” Hurst said. “She absorbed the artistic concepts into her paintings really well.”

Ampolini’s hard work paid off. Last year, she won a regional Silver Key award from Scholastic, which is the second-highest award offered in the competition. Hurst emphasized that this is a big honor because Reynolds is in a large district and competes against a lot of other schools.

“Monica is quiet, but it was her artwork that stood out,” he said. “She expressed herself with her artwork. She used the curriculum to stand out.”

To nominate pieces for these Scholastic Key awards, all of the art teachers bring work that they think is strong and lay all of the projects out on tables for voting. To vote, they put pieces of paper on the art they like best and the ones with the most votes advance to the competition. Only 25 pieces get sent.

In addition to creating artwork, Ampolini is involved in several extracurricular activities, including French National Honor Society, Crosby Scholars, Senior Girls Service Club, National Honor Society and French Club.

After graduation, Ampolini will attend North Carolina State University’s College of Design, a highly competitive program that required an application separate from the university’s application. The College of Design application required prospective students to submit a portfolio with 10 pieces of artwork of any medium. The essay topic was “Design a Textbook for an Electronic Device,” and prospective students had to write what their textbook would be about. After the applications were looked over, select students were asked to come for an interview, and only about two dozen got in.

Ampolini is planning to major in Graphic Design, so she said a career as a graphic designer is a possibility, but she is keeping her future open for now.