For twelve high school seniors from across the country, the answer is the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. As winners of the contest's top honors, the Portfolio Gold Awards, these teens were recognized at a special ceremony at Carnegie Hall on June 5, 2008. Each will also receive a $10,000 college scholarship.

As Scholastic founder Maurice R. Robinson noted in the 1920s, the Awards aim to “give those high school students who demonstrate superior talent in things of the spirit and of the mind at least a fraction of the awards and honors accorded to their athletic classmates for demonstrating their bodily skills.”

This year, more than 100,000 works of art and writing were submitted by more than 77,000 young people in grades 7 through 12. Of these, about 33,000 received regional awards and were celebrated in local ceremonies; many of these winners earned scholarships through arrangements with local colleges. About 10,000 of the regional winners advanced to the national competition, where 1,100 were recognized—and twelve high school seniors earned the Portfolio Gold Awards.

Awards are given annually in 25 visual and writing categories, and are judged blindly, with a focus on: originality, technical skill and the emergence of a personal voice or vision.