NEWARK – Comptroller Peter Franchot recognized three local students for their achievements in the arts with the 2015 Maryland Masters Award.
On May 4, Franchot visited the Worcester County Board of Education to honor Darrius Lewis from Cedar Chapel Special School, Zoe Nichols from Pocomoke Middle School and Nikki Bennett from Snow Hill High School.
“I’m delighted to be down here with this particular award,” Franchot said. “It makes a positive impact on me to be able to recognize these kids in the arts.”
Franchot created the Maryland Masters Award program last year to highlight the importance of the arts and to showcase students who exhibited artistic talent. He said the idea for the program came to him after a visit to Montgomery County’s Discovery Communications. It was then that company officials told Franchot it wasn’t technology skills they were looking for in new hires but rather creativity.
“They said we find that most young people these days are pretty fluent in technology,” Franchot said. “We can teach our technology to anybody but what we’re looking for is creativity. We need to somehow fill up these channels we have with content.”
Franchot said hearing that led him to place more importance on the arts. He believes creative
Comptroller Peter Franchot is pictured with Nikki Bennett from Snow Hill High School. Photos by Charlene Sharpe
children will grow up to be valuable members of the community.
“The future of the state’s economy is to connect the technology with the creativity,” he said.
Franchot said Monday’s ceremony honoring the young artists was especially refreshing considering the violence that had taken place in Baltimore in recent weeks.
“Here we’re talking about things that really matter a lot and kids who have very positive approaches to life,” he said. “It’s what we want to be reading about frankly in Maryland news.” Lewis, a kindergarten student at Cedar Chapel, was recognized for the still life fruit bowl he created with markers and watercolor paints.
Nichols, an eighth-grader at Pocomoke Middle School, was recognized for the bright pointillism-inspired chameleon she painted.
Bennett, a senior at Snow Hill High, earned her award for a photograph of a blue heron over the Pocomoke River.
The Maryland Masters Award program honors three students from each of Maryland’s counties. Their artwork will spend two months on display in Franchot’s office in Annapolis.