Senior Abigail Schroll is Palmetto High School’s Silver Knight nominee in the area of Art.
Schroll is president of the National Art Honor Society. Schroll has won Outstanding Underclassman in Art for the past three years – the first student to have won that trifecta.
For her Silver Knight project, Schroll organized art auctions to raise money for the art department and Lotus House, a homeless shelter for women and children.
“Last year I start organizing fundraisers where myself and other students in the advanced art program would paint theme paintings,” she says.
The proceeds from the Winter Show go to Palmetto and the proceeds from the 2019 End-of-the-Year Art show went to the Lotus House. The theme for the End-of-the-Year show last spring was landscapes. The students sold five landscapes and raised $175 for Lotus House art supplies.
For the 2019 Winter Show they created holiday themed paintings.
“We did animals and scenery you’d see on a typical holiday card,” she says. “One was a winter fruit basket and beach scene. Of the five had we had, we sold three.”
Seeing a friend start a community service project sparked her interest in also doing one, something that would benefit the community using art as a vehicle. She chose Lotus House because they have been doing great work.
“Growing up I always felt very happy I was able to pursue art in a very stable household,” she says. “I know not everyone has the opportunity to pursue creativity. I wanted to try to give back.”
The supplies go to the Lotus House art department.
“They have a room where they do crafts. And do painting,” she says. “They’ll have different workshops where they’ll have activities for certain days. I appreciate what they do there.”
The End-of-the-Year show will likely again feature landscapes for auction with proceeds going to Lotus House.
This year Schroll is in Advanced Placement Art. AP art students do a series of work—painting or other type of media—in a concentration.
“Every week we have to make a painting or drawing of a certain size,” she says. “You have a topic or a subject that you have to adhere to the subject (portfolio).”
For her concentration, Schroll is doing a series of frog paintings.
“I like explore landscaping. A series of environments that a frog is traversing through,” she says.
So far, she has nine out of 15 completed.
Many students give up their art when they go to college, but Schroll says she plans to continue even as she studies to become a veterinarian. She has been accepted to Penn State University. She is waiting for word from the University of Florida and Florida State University.
As a vet, she’d like to specialize in small animals.
“I have Guinea pigs. They are hard to diagnose. They tend to hide when they aren’t feeling well,” she says. “I know a lot of vets don’t have the ability to treat these animals. I want to give my Guinea pigs the best life. And other people’s rabbits the best life they can get.”
Schroll is the president of the National Art Honor Society and a member of the Japanese Honor Society. She’s taken Japanese for three years. She won first place in the artistic category of the Nengajo New Year’s Card Contest, a contest that Palmetto Japanese students enter every year. She’s the first winner from Palmetto.
She swam for Palmetto for two years, participating in the 50-meter and 100-meter relays.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
