Center for Creative Arts senior is a U.S. Presidential Scholars semi-finalist
Maggie Wilkinson, a senior at the Chattanooga High School Center for Creative Arts (CCA), has advanced to the final round of the 2020 U.S. Presidential Scholars competition. Wilkinson is one of just over 600 semi-finalists from across the country and 14 from Tennessee moving on for consideration as a Presidential Scholar.
Wilkinson is a candidate for the competition because of her demonstrated excellence in creative arts. Johns Hopkins University, Brown University, Dartmouth University, and Princeton University have all recently accepted her for admission. Wilkinson will continue her study of creative writing and English at Princeton University this fall when she joins the Class of 2024.
Wilkinson was named a 2019 Young Arts Foundation Finalist in writing and poetry, the organization’s highest honor. She was also a winner in the 2020 Chattanooga Photographic Society’s Youth Showcase. Wilkinson won first place in architecture and photojournalism. She received second place in people and animals and third in monochrome. The national showcase, as well as the Hunter Museum, will exhibit her winning work.
The U.S. Presidential Scholars competition initially recognized and honored students who demonstrated exceptional academic abilities when established in 1964. The competition also now recognizes outstanding students in the creative and performing arts and career and technical programs. Out of over 3 million graduating high school seniors, just over 5,000 are candidates, with some 600 chosen as semi-finalists.
Of the semi-finalists, only 161 students will receive the Presidential Scholars honor, one of the top recognitions for high school students in the nation. Zavier Chavez, a 2019 graduate of the Chattanooga High School Center for Creative Arts (CCA), was a Presidential Scholar last year.
Photo: Maggie Wilkinson