Audrey Kelly and Christopher Burcheri were recently honored at a Board of Education meeting and are pictured here at with (left to right): Dr. Robert Feirsen, Superintendent of Schools, Colleen Foley, President of the Board of Education, high school art teacher Loreen McMahon, and Dr. Nina Prasso, District Coordinator of Music and the Arts. Two Garden City High School students were selected to be honored as Long Island Scholar Artists for the 2009-2010 school year. Senior Audrey Kelly was selected to receive an Award of Excellence and Christopher Burcheri, also a senior at the high school, was selected to receive an Honorable Mention. Audrey and Christopher were recently honored at a Board of Education meeting.

The Scholar-Artist program was established in 2008 by New York State Regent Roger Tilles and the Long Island Arts Alliance (LIAA), in cooperation with Newsday, to recognize two students a month during the school year, one from Nassau and one from Suffolk, chosen from five disciplines: visual arts, music, theater, dance and media arts.

Now in its third year, the program provides recognition for students who are driven to excel in the arts, as well as academically. Those students who aspire to be the next Bach, Monet, Martha Graham, Annie Leibovitz, Spike Lee, Yo-Yo Ma or Meryl Streep, are selected from submissions by their high schools by a committee of arts leaders and are honored at a Gala Ceremony at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts in the spring. The committee is comprised of directors of music, art, fine arts, media arts, heads of BOCES arts programs and school superintendents.

Qualifying students for the LIAA Scholar-Artist awards must have an unweighted average of 90, a recommendation from an academic teacher, as well as a recommendation from a fine arts teacher. The first LIAA Scholar-Artists Awards were presented Sunday, April 6, 2008 and each month’s students are featured in Newsday profiles.

Congratulations to Audrey and Christopher for being selected as 2009-2010 Scholar-Artists!