Shelby Junior High School ninth grader Ellie Miloian, left, and her friend and subject of her artwork, Natalie Wells, pose with Miloian’s art piece, “A Flattering Angle,” which earned a national silver medal in this year’s Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.
By: Sarah Wright | Shelby-Utica News | Published April 20, 2026
SHELBY TOWNSHIP/UTICA — After converting a friend’s selfie into a drawing, Shelby Junior High School ninth grader Ellie Miloian earned a national silver medal in this year’s Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.
More than 110,000 students entered more than 355,000 original works of art in the national competition. Less than 2% are awarded medals. There are multiple regional competitions that, depending on how a submission does, can later allow for submissions to move on to national judging for Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.
Miloian’s piece, “A Flattering Angle,” was entered into a regional Scholastic competition where it earned a top rating — the Gold Key. The work was then evaluated by a national panel of professional artists, where it was selected for the silver medal and will be featured in Scholastic’s online gallery.
“So, you enter artwork or writing, but, in our case, artwork, and there’s different categories,” Shelby Junior High School teacher Christopher Brunson said. “There’s a painting category, a drawing category, sculpture category.”
The piece originated as a selfie that one of Miloian’s best friends, Natalie Wells, took at the end of last school year. Miloian converted the picture into a pencil drawing, using graphite to add shading and depth.
“We traced it out on the canvas board and then . . . we filled it in with a bunch of different graphite and everything and shaded it,” Miloian said.
Art has been a part of Miloian’s life since an early age. Her mother owns a cookie design business where Miloian helps provide designs for customers.
“I think, specifically, I like drawing with pencils and stuff but … ever since I was young, my mom has a cookie business, and so I help her pick out signs and frost the cookies,” Miloian said. “So, I really like doing that too.”
Brunson said in a press release that Miloian worked hard for several months on a drawing that consisted of three different layers and that “it is such an honor to get a national award, and I’m so proud of Ellie for having received this recognition.”
On top of being featured in Scholastic’s online gallery, the piece will also be featured at the Utica Community Schools student art fair, which will be held May 12-14 at the Sterling Heights Community Center, 40250 Dodge Park Road.
“I’ve gotten a lot of messages from grandparents and aunts and uncles and everything, and my parents are very supportive of everything I do,” Miloian said.
For more information, visit uticak12.org or artandwriting.org.