Media Releases
Friday, May 4, 2007
Good Things Are Happening
Harry Ainlay student receives $160,000 scholarship from U.S. school
Genan Peng, a Grade 12 student at Harry Ainlay School, has been accepted at the Cooper Union in New York to study architecture. Cooper Union provides students with a full scholarship for the five years of their architecture degree. The scholarship is valued at approximately $160,000 US.
"Genan has an extremely well-developed visual intellect, which she honed through the process of drawing, painting and sculpting," says her art teacher Theron Lund. "These skills are imperative in the field of architecture, where the spatial relationship between objects is the foundation of design."
Mr. Lund says that Genan's artwork is distinctive because it relates to her cultural identity, which is Chinese and western Canadian. In her sculpture, entitled Personal Stamp, Genan carved out of Styrofoam and plaster an enormous Chinese Chop. A Chop is a stamp made of stone, which is used to replace one's signature or to prove identity or authorship. Instead of having traditional Chinese characters for the signature stamp, she had the numbers given to her on her school ID card carved into the bottom of the stamp. As Genan wrote in her statement about the sculpture, it is "a depiction of my cultural ambiguity."
The Cooper Union seeks students of exceptional ability and talent. For students in art, admission is based on portfolio and home test evaluation; in architecture, admission is based on a combination of academic achievement and home test evaluation.
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, established in 1859, is among the United States' oldest and most distinguished institutions of higher learning. It is the only private, full-scholarship college in the United States dedicated exclusively to preparing students for the professions of art, architecture and engineering.
For further information, contact:
Jane Farrell, Media Relations
Edmonton Public Schools
(780) 429-8290
(780) 970-4356
