Bless Yee, 2006 Award Winner…
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| Bless Yee is presented the Danny Wood Heart in Art Award at the 2006 Awards Banquet by Lyn Fitzpatrick, Founder of TransformingWomen.com. |
The 7th annual Danny Wood “Heart In Art” award goes to Bless Yee of Friendswood High School. Bless was presented a trophy and a check for $1,000, during the annual Awards Banquet on Wednesday, November 29th, 2006.
Bless is a Senior at Friendswood H.S. Last year at VASE, her work was chosen for a Gold Seal Award, which honors her as one of the top art students in the state of Texas. Her artwork is currently in an art exhibit that is traveling around Texas for one year. She also participated in the Houston Livestock and Rodeo Art Competition, where her work was chosen as Best of Show last year and a Gold Medal this year. Her drawing was awarded $2,000 in the Rodeo Art Auction. She is an active member in the National Art Honor Society.
Other school activities include: The National Honor Society, Book Club, Student Council and Technology Student’s Association, where she earned two first and one second place honors in 2005, a member of the Link Crew and Spelling and Vocabulary UIL, where she received fourth place in the 2005 State Competition. She is also taking Advanced Placement courses in History, Math, and English. She attends Chinese School, plays the drums, takes and teaches piano lessons, and is a member of her church choir.
Her teacher, Jan Nemitz, describes her as the type of person teachers adore having in their class. She’s always positive, cares about other people, and is respected by her peers. She has a great sense of humor and enjoys her life to the fullest. Whatever challenges she sets for herself are always of a high standard.
Last spring Bless’s father was diagnosed with cancer and died in August. Consequently, her home life and financial situation have changed dramatically. Bless is an only child with a stay-at-home mother. Savings meant for college have had to be spent. She is on the free lunch program. She is applying to many art schools for scholarships, which may be the only chance she has for a college education.
Besides the recipient of the Art In Art Award, Bless took fourth place in Mixed Media and Seventh in Painting in this year’s Culture Shapers Art Contest, for a total of $2,250 in cash prizes.
Follow-Up from Bless…
I want to thank you and Culture Shapers for the scholarship awarded to me last year. It helped with my college tuition.
Never in my life have I been so inspired to learn. As a student at Parsons the New School for Design, I am constantly surrounded by qualified professionals and provided with opportunities to attend panel discussions, shows, workshops, galleries, etc. At school we are encouraged to work together and share our ideas that allow us to grow faster. Some classes even enforce us to dress business casual to make us work at a higher level. The workload is incredible, but I love working on all my assignments. My classmates and I often stay up all night painting, hammering, drawing, filming, and the list goes on. Every morning, I find myself excited to go to class.
Artists have an ability that very few other professions have, and it is the power to influence. As artists and designers, it is our duty to engage and analyze everything around us with each passing moment.
Bless Yee
2006 “Heart in Art” Award Winner
Update from teacher, Jan Nemitz…
After winning Culture Shapers, Bless realized that she had some things that could work in her favor - she had a very high GPA, she was a minority and she now came from a single parent family. Bless worked very hard to find out about art schools, what they had to offer and what they required. After many pieces of artwork and fillling out papers, two trips to New York with her mother to visit and to speak with different personnel from art schools and a lot of soul searching, she was finally offered a scholarship to Parsons. They offered her $88,000 for four years of college. Of course, she has to keep up her grades to keep her scholarship money. Bless also applied for some smaller scholarships through our school so that supplemented the yearly costs of room, board, food and supplies.
Bless was recently home for Christmas and she said she couldn’t imagine her life being any happier at this point. There is a teacher at Parsons that is mentoring her and giving her private lessons outside of school because her artwork is so spectacular. She has met many friends and is in love with the city of New York.
Bless is just a joy to know and a perfect example of where hard work and determination can do. This is a success story that needs to be told so that others with unfortunate situations can have some hope for their futures.
Jan Nemitz
Friendswood High School
