aboutimage galleriescontactsubscribe

Zankel Scholarship

JULY 31, 2007
Andrea Rhodes (San Jose State), Christina Mrosik (Grand Valley), Adrienne Balthuis (Grand Valley),Tina Sweep (Ringling)
I've been away for a while finishing my Master’s Degree and trying to catch up here.  Here's some great news from mid-June.  As chair of the Education Committee, Judy Francis Zankel, Terry Brown and myself put together and launched a new scholarship for students which is different than the annual scholarship competition.  This one is called the Zankel Scholarship, named for Judy's late husband Arthur.  This scholarship has one prize.  How it works:  Illustration departments from all over the country submit work of their best Junior level students...a portfolio, essay and transcripts.  The jury this year included Donato Giancola, Jack Tom, Marcos Chin, Dennis Dittrich and Vicki Nightingale went through over 70 submissions.  The entries were absolutely amazing!  The jury came out of the other end with four finalists.  The finalists were Tina Sweep (Ringling), Christina Mrosik (Grand Valley), Adrienne Balthuis (Grand Valley) and Andrea Rhodes (San Jose State).

The finalists, on the Society's dime, flew them all in and put them up in a hotel and gave a gratis 36 hour adventure in New York City.  They barely had enough time to drop their portfolios off when I whisked them to the Museum of Modern Art for a few hours and to get to know the finalists.  They are mature well beyond their years as people and as artists.  After a couple of hours at MOMA, I ran them back to the hotel for about 25 minutes so they can change their clothes and grab their portfolios and off to the final interview with the esteemed jury. 

After a few hours, the jury made their decision.  Tina Sweep is the first Zankel Scholar!  This scholarship gives her $20,000 to put toward any and all expenses for her senior year in college.  Of course, we didn't forget the runner ups.  On top of the gratis trip to New York, we gave them each $1,000 cash for being a finalist.  After the 'big announcement', I took them downtown for dinner at a Vietnamese place along with Donato who accompanied us.  After that, of all places, they wanted to go to Strand!  Two of the ladies went back early the next day to pick up even more books to add to their piles of purchases the night before!

My personal comment about this whole experience is that these ladies are unbelievable artists and wonderful people.  I also found it interesting that all the finalists were women!  They have a lot of savvy and they all have wonderful instructors who are certainly leading them in the right directions.  The next day I went back to the Society to see them off and I have to say, as they were getting into the 'limo' to take them back to the airport, I felt a little choked up.  I wish them all the best into the future and congratulations.  Remember when looking at their work…THEY’RE JUNIORS!  A couple of them already had work in the Student Scholarship Competition and it stand to reason that they’ll find their way into the Pro Shows in the future!

I'd like to thank specially, Mark Korsack for picking up the ladies at the airport and really helping making sure that everything goes off without a hitch.
Zankel Scholarship
More Zankel News and Photos
Tina Sweep Blog Site  and her website
Andrea Rhodes Blog Site
I will post the other's web sites or blogs when they send them over.

Tina Sweep
Andrea Rhodes
Adrienne Balthuis
Christina Mrozik
© 2024 Scott Bakal