Twice a year, every year, the AP Art students of Loy Norrix High School attend a portfolio review. Last year, Shakira Green’s junior year, she took the September portfolio review at the Kalamazoo Institute of Art as just another day, not expecting much from the college representatives who were reviewing and accepting a few lucky AP Art students’ portfolios. Shakira decided to get in line to see the representative of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and pulled out her concentration pieces from her portfolio.

“My concentration for my junior year was this concept with ‘seeing’ sound. So, I came up with the different ways to measure music, but created pieces from it,” said Shakira.

Her pieces consisted of objects similar to sine graphs, music bars, and frequency waves.

Shakira explained the representative’s reaction as thrilled once he saw her concentration artwork, claiming her pieces as excellent products considering her age. The representative approved Shakira’s portfolio without hesitation.

When a college representative reviews and approves a student’s portfolio, the student’s chances of receiving an acceptance letter from that college increases.

Shakira’s portfolio being reviewed and approved led to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago to accept her application with haste. Shakira has been offered a merit-based scholarship that pays for 30 thousand dollars of tuition every year for four years. The merit-based scholarship commended her outstanding and creative performance depicted in her artwork.

Cindy VanLieu, one of Loy Norrix High School’s art teachers said that this year’s AP Art class, out of the three years the class has been available, has been by far the most successful class. The students have been involved in highly competitive art reviews for scholarships. The portfolio reviews that the students participate in have no fee and are offered by local and national colleges and universities.

Multiple students have been accepted and have won awards for their art pieces; these students include Loy Norrix’s Shakira Green, Abbi Ramos, and Justin Lynk.

Ramos said that he did not have the chance to have enough pieces prepared for last year’s art portfolio review. However, the college representative from Kendall University offered to interview Ramos when he could prepare more of his work. Ramos set up a date and met with the representative on Kendall’s campus; he was accepted to Kendall and also received a 13 thousand dollar scholarship.

Ramos’ main focus is on surrealism and his passion lies in drawing. Ramos discovered this passion last year when he first enrolled in AP Art. He plans to continue to compete for more art scholarships, one of them offering a cash prize of 20 thousand dollars from Kendall College of Art.

Justin Lynk’s art portfolio was accepted to Kendall College of Art on site at the Kalamazoo Institute of Art. Upon acceptance, he also received a 13 thousand dollar college scholarship.

Lynk said, “I’ve just always known that drawing is what I’ve wanted to do. I love it. That’s all there is to it.”

Lynk plans to pursue a career as a concept artist after college. A concept artist designs characters for video games and movies.