Judges Claire Kavaya, Zach Cordner, and Maria Mingalone reviewed 292 submissions from 14 high schools and selected the pieces featured here for their creativity of expression, use of materials, and quality of presentation.

The First Place prizewinner will be announced at the annual spring awards reception on May 12, 2025 to celebrate high school artists from throughout California’s 49th Congressional District. After appearing here, the First Place winner will be sent to Washington for display in the United States Capitol.

Featured Artists:

Leala Anderson, Ashley Badillo, Alejandro Balbuena, Cody Coffey, Jinru Dai, Lacey De Leon, Adeline Desmarais, Tyler Fabian, Everest Franz, Aleira Frausto, Avarie Gann, Rio Garcia, Emily Gijon, Alexander Gonzalez, Leanne Gonzalez, Jace Goodwin, Gianna Griffin, Vaughn Hoffman, Nicholas Houfley, Natalie Johnson, Kaila Kotol, Nicholas Layne, Alexandra Marsh, Kira Maziek, Murdoc Moffat, Gwen Neathey, Gabriela Onofre Ramirez, Angie Othon-Ramirez, Leon Pham, Noah Robinson, Clarissa Shen, Derek Stevenson, Leah Vongsavanthong, and Anna Whalen.

Zach Cordner first picked up a camera at just fourteen years old. He has worked for the likes of the Associated Press, Rolling Stone, Capitol Records, and Vans, and was an official Coachella Music Festival photographer. He is the Creative Director and co-founder of Osider Magazine. He also teaches an afterschool photography program at Oceanside High School, helping students learn the techniques of photojournalism and how to document the world around them.

Clair Kavaya is a French artist and art teacher who taught art in Paris for 16 years before moving to Southern California and continuing her teaching career at The Side Street Art Studio. She studied painting at the University of Fine Arts of Paris (Beaux-Arts de Paris) where her work was very influenced by American painters such as Georgia O'Keeffe, Edward Hopper, Eric Fischl. After meeting her husband, who was born and raised in San Clemente, she fell in love with Southern California and decided to continue teaching in a spacious studio where everyone can feel comfortable and experience figurative drawing and painting.

Maria Mingalone is the executive director of Oceanside Museum of Art, where she began working in 2017. Her background includes not only expertise in curating and museum education, but also 25 years of progressive museum and nonprofit management expertise. She holds a Masters of Science degree in museum education and leadership from the Bank Street Graduate School of Education in New York, NY.