Staff photos / Brandon Cantwell Jenna Young, an Austintown Fitch High School sophomore, describes the inspiration behind her photograph“Big Cold World” at the 2025 Northeast Ohio Scholastic Art Awards in Bliss Hall at Youngstown State University on Saturday afternoon. Young received two Silver Keys and 11 honorable mentions for her work.

YOUNGSTOWN — The unexpected death of a well-liked student-teacher at her former middle school and access to art supplies outside of class time amid a busy schedule helped inspire Jenna Young to create “The Loss of Mr. McKinney.”

“There was a student-teacher who used to teach where I was in middle school, when I was in sixth grade; and recently he passed away,” Young, a sophomore at Austintown Fitch High School said. “And a lot of people in the band, everyone really liked him so it was really hard on everyone in the band. My band teacher told us before a football game and it just inspired me to make this.”

Young, who worked on it bit by bit each night, was rewarded for her passion and dedication, as it — along with her photo of snow falling through blades of grass, “Big Cold World” — won two Silver Keys on Saturday at the 2025 Scholastic Art Awards ceremony at Youngstown State University. Eleven of her other works received honorable mentions.

Young was one of 249 students who participated in the awards presented by the Cliffe College of Creative Arts, whose participants were recognized in Bliss Hall at YSU.

The event, which draws students in grades 7-12 from Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana and Ashtabula counties, tested their artistic abilities throughout the first half of the school year as they used various mediums to create art their teachers could consider worthy of submission to the show, which maintains a high standard every year.

Its primary sponsors were Akron Children’s Hospital and the YSU Foundation.

Gold Key recipients will compete in a national competition in April in New York City. American Vision Award-winning pieces are considered the five best in show, Josh MacMillan, Hubbard High School art teacher and event coordinator, explained, noting that local AVA recipients will compete in New York against their national counterparts.

Forty-nine Mahoning Valley educators registered for Saturday’s event in which 389 works were submitted. In addition, 25 Gold Keys and 63 Silver Keys were given, as were 301 honorable mentions, he said.

“This year’s show has been another tremendous opportunity to see the best artists in our schools, presented by educators who continue to push them to display their work,” MacMillan said. “I hope our Valley continues to support their students’ participation and realize that the greatest promotional tool they have to display the strength of their school lies in the arts.”

“It’s one of a few opportunities your school has to say they’re competing at a national level in any competition,” he added.

MacMillan said his goal for next year’s show is to make it 100% financially covered so that no one has to worry about an entry fee.

William Young, Jenna’s father, was a longtime coordinator of the art awards before handing it over to MacMillan in 2019 and becoming a part-time art instructor at YSU afterward.

He expressed pride in his daughter’s achievements, as he knew how much William McKinney, the art teacher “The Loss of Mr. McKinney” was inspired by, meant to her.

“I’m super proud of her for spending all the time, especially with this work; she (Jenna) used it to show her emotion because it was a shock, which they found out that the band teacher committed suicide,” William said. “It was very hurtful and she was struggling with that. She’s always tried to turn to art to express her feelings and this was a great way for her to remember him, being there in sixth grade, being the student teacher in her band room, and also a way to memorialize him in a work of art.”

William said she found time to work on the piece, even with a full schedule of extracurriculars such as rock band, marching band and participating in the school’s art club.

He said Jenna plans to donate the art piece to the school so they can display it, echoing the shock that her classmates felt when they found out McKinney was gone.

Paul Olivier, vice president of Akron Children’s Mahoning Valley, was on stage with MacMillan, award recipients and other event sponsors during a 45-minute program in Ford Theater.

Olivier said later that he didn’t know how they choose art from the event for the hospitals, but he did know that they keep every piece that they display — past or present — on file.

“It’s a nice honor to be able to support this because we do have a lot of children’s art throughout our hospital, not just the one in Boardman, but the main campus in Akron,” Olivier said. “When they’re older, we can find that art for them in our inventory.”

“It really is nice to have art done by kids in a pediatric hospital because that helps our patients feel a little bit more at ease, a little bit more at home,” he added.