SJA News - February 18, 2026

Campus News

2026 Vermont Scholastic Art and Writing Awards



St. Johnsbury Academy students won fifty-three awards in this year's 2026 Vermont Scholastic Art and Writing Awards for both Fine Art and Writing. A total of twenty-seven students won awards for their work in Portfolio (Writing), Journalism, Personal Essay & Memoir, Drawing, Critical Essay, Short Story, Fashion, Ceramics & Glass, Poetry, Photography, Experimental Photography, Painting, Screenplays & Scripts, Flash Fiction, and Portfolio (Art). They received six Gold Keys, 13 Silver Keys, and 34 Honorable Mentions. Entries winning Gold Keys will be judged at the national level of the competition in the coming weeks.

Gathering on Fuller Hall stage are: Ashton Switser '29, Allison Schmidt '29, Elliette Melen '28, Mia Porcelli '29, Ivanna Mullins '29, Conall Kennedy '29, Grant Tucker '27, Ruby Tillotson '26, Marcus Burns '27, Colin Randall '26, Rylie Johnston '26, Eve LeBlanc '26, Poppy Shattuck '27, Antonita Rae Melchor '27, Devlyn Foldeak '26, Beatrice Garvin '28, Audrey Roy '27. Missing from the photo are Burke Donovan '28, Scarlett Hersh '28, Leo Kantrowitz '27, Emily Morgan '26, Reese Mulligan '29Emma Putnam '26, Raine Rashid '27, Yuxuan Wang '27, Natalie Wheeler '27, and Hannah White '26.

A slideshow of their work can be viewed here.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Friday, February 20

Vacation Begins, No Classes

Tuesday, March 3

PSAT/SAT School Testing Day, No Classes

Wednesday, March 4

Classes Resume

March 9-12

9th Grade VTCAP Testing - Late Start Schedule

Friday, March 13

Faculty In-Service, No Classes

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Senior Ads and Yearbook Sales

Senior ads are now on sale for families who want to celebrate their graduate. Ads can be purchased until February 28, 2026.

Yearbooks can also be purchased now. The cost is $60. For senior families, please remember that your student will receive a book as part of the fee they pay in the spring for their cap and gown and prom tickets. 

Use this link to purchase ads or yearbooks.

Host Families Needed

From March 20 - 29, SJA will host 30 boys from our partner school in Tokyo, Japan. Each 15-year-old boy will stay with a host family. This is a great opportunity for your child to learn about another culture and develop their skills as a host and representative of our community. It's also a chance to have a lot of fun and to make a new friend. There is a modest stipend for participating families. If you're interested in hosting, we are still seeking two families to host a student. Please contact Glenn Ehrean at glenn.ehrean@stjacademy.org.

AROUND CAMPUS

Students held a One-Act Showcase last week.

Friday was a great day for hot cocoa, marshmallows, and cookies. Thank you to the Student Life office for organizing the event.

Mrs. Fox's photography students were challenged to use new skills of bracketing (creating varying exposures of the same frame to ensure proper negative exposure) and incident metering (measuring the light falling on your subject as opposed to the light reflecting off your subject) to create images of spaces and places. Students each created two final pieces, which are on exhibit in the Morse Arts Center! If you can't make it to Morse, click here to see the photos.

Students headed to Willoughby Lake over the weekend for ice climbing.

ATHLETICS

Congratulations to Nordic team members (top, l-r): Cyrus Kidder '28, Amalie Pratt '28, Graham Moriarty '28, and Stella van der Linde '28 (bottom, left), for qualifying for the U16 championships, and Tillie Lange '27 (bottom, center) and Anya Moriarty '26 (bottom, right) for qualifying for the Eastern High School Championships.

Sophomore snowboarder MJ Kissinger continues her winning ways with wins at Stowe and Smuggler’s Notch snowboarding freeride events. MJ’s win at Stowe was in the women’s U19 snowboard category, and during the more challenging freeride competition at Smuggler’s Notch, she took the top spot again and improved her national ranking to 4th in the U19 female snowboard division. Her ranking is subject to change based on other competitions throughout the rest of the season, including two more freeride events. The final national rankings are expected to be released in late March.

Last week, we celebrated our Game Day Cheer seniors. Congratulations, Pepe and Riley.

Photos from Senior Night and Gymnastics' big win over Essex can be found here. SJA is the top-seed in Saturday's State Championships, which will be held on campus in the fieldhouse beginning at 6:30 PM.

Senior Night photos and game photos from the hockey team's overtime win over Burlington can be found here.