On an early December morning, senior Mallory Pangilinan was checking her email when she saw the word congratulations. She didn’t quite believe what she was reading. It slowly sank in that her dream school had offered her a $100,000 scholarship. She immediately bolted from her bed to find her mom and tell her. Her mom said, “No you didn’t – you can’t read!” When she read the email, it began to sink in as tears streamed down Mallory’s face.

Mallory Pangilinan was one of two senior art magnet students who gained a scholarship. She committed to the Parsons School of Design, in New York. Esmeralda Hernandez received a scholarship to the Kansas City Art Institute in Kansas City Missouri. They both were awarded $25,000 per year for a total of $100,000 for each school’s tuition. Their hard work in and outside of the art magnet lead them to gain these scholarships.

“I’m a little proud of myself, I guess because I have a lot of hard expectations of myself. I can say that I’m satisfied with my portfolio. Of course, I’m very thankful that I’ve gotten accepted into colleges,” Hernandez said.

During the pandemic, Mallory’s sophomore year, she had to do school virtually.

“I genuinely felt like I wasn’t gonna go to college and like, there’s no way any college would even want me,” Pangilinan said.

When Hernandez joined the Art Magnet during her freshman year, it wasn’t always a smooth road for her. At first, she had a hard time coming up with ideas for art pieces, and she enjoyed making personal artwork more than pieces for her school portfolio.

Then came her sophomore year when the pandemic occurred. Though online school had its troubles, being able to work at home was also enjoyable for Hernandez.

“Since I was in my private space, I feel more comfortable creating what I want to make,” Hernandez said.

Time in the art magnet led Pangilinan to strengthen her portfolio and further develop her art skills. Most of the pieces she used for her portfolio, which she sent to colleges, were created in her junior and senior years.

“Those are probably the strongest pieces I’ve ever had,” Pangilinan said. “Because of the skills that I got from the art magnet, and the advice I got from Ms. Krusleski, I was able to really kind of perfect it and make it really personal to me.”

Hernandez and Pangilinan both asked Ms. Krusleski for recommendations for colleges.

“I was really honored to do that for both because I can see their development. They’re very mature,” Krusleski said.

Around the age of five, Pangilinan showed an interest in art. She started taking art classes because her kindergarten teacher encouraged her to do so.

“In kindergarten, my teacher took one of my pieces and put it into a competition for the school, and I won,” Pangilinan said. “She let me skip ahead of all the other kids and would let me do the stuff that the fifth graders were doing. She just really pushed me, she really saw my potential.”

Before this year, Pangilinan said that she didn’t know if it was realistic for her to continue learning art in college and wasn’t sure if it was a sustainable path for her to take. Krusleski brought Mallory out of her doubt and told her how talented she was and that she could make it as an artist if she wanted to.

After her teacher’s convincing, Mallory decided to pursue her passion for art.

“I was like, okay, so I applied to those schools and now I’ve made it in,” Mallory said.

While Mallory was unsure about pursuing art in her future, Esmeralda knew that she wanted to have a career in it.

“I just know the universities that I’m interested in and like, a general array of careers I’m interested in,” Hernandez said. “I’m more of like a go-with-the-flow kind of person, so whatever opportunities come at me, I’II take them.”

No matter what the future holds, Krusleski said that if they continue to work hard and believe in themselves they’ll be successful.

“That’s what I tell them. Don’t give up on yourself. You’re just a little pee in a pod right now,” Krusleski said.