For many students, art is a way of life, and it is sometimes the only way to express, communicate and understand the world. Iris Wu and Ankhil Enkhbayar, both seniors at Los Altos High School, have known since preschool that being an artist is essential to their identity.
With the encouragement of Christine An, the students’ A.P. art teacher, they both applied and were recently designated the 2025 California Art Education Association Duane Hagen & Laurel Burch scholarship recipients for the Northern Region. The CAEA, a professional network of art educators that promotes art curriculum at the state and national levels, designates two art students from both Northern and Southern California and picks them based ot their 10 portfolio pieces. They are also asked by the scholarship committee how art has influenced their life, how they are involved with art outside of the classroom and any hardships they must overcome. According to CAEA, scholarships are financial awards to support students with their art education in their chosen university and are sent directly to the university’s financial office.
Wu, the recipient of the Duane Hagen Scholarship, said she did not come from an artistic family growing up, but everyone in her life has supported her on her artistic journey. Wu said she will be attending the University of California San Diego in the fall and is excited to find a community there when she starts. She plans on majoring in interdisciplinary computing and art and hopes to combine various software programs with her passion for design.
“I hope to learn more ways of how my art can reach people and like, through different mediums, not just through a fine arts perspective, but also design perspectives, which is something I want to do,” Wu said. “I want to learn how to use software and combine some aspects of science, like computer science with art.”
Wu said many of the pieces she submitted for the scholarship were the best works she had made last year and the ones that best represented her skills. She said many of her favorite works were ones that displayed the nature of unpredictability and things that are out of one’s control. She said with her artistic background; she wants to be able to connect communities with her pieces.
“Art is sometimes underrepresented in a community or landscape,” Wu said. “Some public art pieces can represent a community and brighten it and make more people want to come in. I think artists have the background of what allows us to connect with things, like with each other.”
Enkhbayar, the recipient of the Laurel Burch scholarship, said her parents have supported her art talent and provided her with opportunities such as summer camps and study abroad programs. Last year she went to Paris to study fashion design for three weeks.
Enkhbayar, who just got accepted into the Parsons School of Design in Paris, hopes to use the scholarship to explore careers in the fashion industry. Enkhbayar also has a passion for photography and editorials, which many of the pieces submitted in her portfolio include, and feels very supported by her school community in creating art within an uplifting environment.
“I can’t really imagine any other route for me besides going into (it) career-wise because I feel like I would just be very unhappy in any other kind of environment,” Enkhbayar said. “Everybody’s regret is not risking what they wanted to have done. I’m trying my best to listen to myself and take the risk, even though it’s scary.”
In future work, Enkhbayar plans to draw upon her Mongolian heritage and use the many symbols, colors and fonts in her work. She said her A.P. Art portfolio plans to use the traditional forms. She said that is rare to see her cultural identity on the screen and was inspired by the 2024 Mongolian Olympic team with their uniform designs.
“My country isn’t mentioned within the public spheres, and it was really surprising,” Enkhbayar said. “I was very proud at that moment. I kind of want to have a similar moment with that about kind of pushing my own cultural identity in a big way.”
