Senior Vivian Lu recently received the Minneapolis College of Art and Design’s (MCAD) most prestigious scholarship after winning a gold key in the Scholastic Art Competition for one of her paintings. “The Scholastic Award has partnerships with many art colleges in the US, including MCAD. One of the ways to get the scholarship at MCAD is to win a gold key, then MCAD considers  you as one of the candidates for the scholarship,”  Lu said.

Lu will be attending MCAD, a small arts college located in Minneapolis, in the fall. The Scholastic Award is just one of the many of the scholarship programs MCAD has partnered with. “For The Scholastic Award, you can submit individual pieces and/or a 8-piece portfolio. I submitted three individual pieces and a portfolio,” Lu said

Getting admitted to an art college typically involves a longer process, often requiring pieces of the applicant’s art to be included. Winning the gold key for the Scholastic competition made the process simpler for Lu.  “For art colleges, we usually have to submit a portfolio, around 12 to 20 pieces, and then they base it on that [the portfolio], my GPA, and my transcripts. The portfolio is the most important of all; it affects I’d say 70% of the decision. Art colleges have unusual standards; it’s not something you can just do, there’s a lot more to it,” Lu said

Winning the gold key and the competitive scholarship made Lu realize that it is possible to make a career out of her artwork. “I didn’t really realize until sophomore year that art was kind of  ‘my thing’, and that I was good at it,” Lu said.
Lu does not really have a preference for which medium she uses, but over the years has taken a liking to watercolor. “I pretty much do everything, but I really like watercolor; it’s the only painting I do. If I’m feeling lazy, I’ll just work with pencil because it’s easy to blend, but if I’m feeling fancy I will use watercolor,” Lu said