Senior Maddie Shanholtz entered the school year focused on one main goal, getting into college. She is currently in the process of applying to college and is ready to submit them all.

“It’s a very tedious process because you can’t really submit everything all at once. For example, I [already finished] part of [my application], but I’m still waiting on the letters of recommendations to come in so I can finally submit it,” Shanholtz said. “I started to edit my personal essay which I’ve been putting off for a while. So there’s plenty of parts to it that take a while. It’s kind of stressful.”

Shanholtz is the secretary of SCA this year and plays volleyball. She initially joined SCA because she wanted to help promote school activities and increase school spirit. She has played volleyball for four years now, starting at Skyline Middle School. This year, she started playing at Horizons Edge with the elite team.

Over quarantine, Shanholtz started an art journal which she feels has helped her express herself and work on not needing to be surrounded by others.

“I [would] just [work on my journal] whenever I had downtime, or if I had an idea of what to [do in a] collage. I think I would just do it then, but I don’t have a schedule for it,” Shanholtz said.

Her favorite part of journaling is getting to see her finished piece. She believes that even if it doesn’t always turn out looking good, it’s cool that she finished something. Even though she keeps an art journal, Shanholtz didn’t take any art classes in high school.

“It’s not something I take super seriously, just something for fun,” Shanholtz said. “I tend to do a lot of collages. Realism is not my strong point, so I make cartoonish type stuff. I like mixing print media to make a new image, or overlapping different styles/themes.”

Shanholtz also has taken an interest in art museums. She believes it’s a nice way to express feelings and that all the art is really pretty.

“My favorite artist is Keith Haring. He was pretty big in the late 80s/early 90s and has, I think, a very unique neo-pop art style which he used to create safe sex and AIDS awareness. I find myself taking a lot of inspiration from his stuff,” Shanholtz said. “Another thing I love about him is that he made a majority of his art on the street, like graffiti pieces, and his reasoning for it was to make art more accessible to everyone. Art is for everyone and I don’t think you necessarily need to be ‘good’ at it to enjoy it.”