OOHS student Spencer M. with the ceramic mugs he created to serve as awards for the OCC Art Show.

More than 200 student artists honored during the Ohio Capital Conference (OCC) Art Show last week walked away with a unique award that also is a piece of art in its own right. The stylish awards — colorful ceramic art mugs— came courtesy of Olentangy Orange High School’s (OOHS) Spencer M.

The OOHS senior spent a good part of the year making the 200-plus ceramic mugs needed for the OCC Wes Blizzard Art Invitational held May 2. The show takes place every spring at the State Teacher Retirement System Building in Columbus and features awards made by a student artist.

Spencer was nominated to create this year’s awards by his art teacher, Susan Strohl, who said she picked Spencer because he had the talent and experience to tackle the project.

“I chose him because he has taken seven ceramics classes, he was old enough to appreciate the task and he had the dedication to see it through. He had to come up with an idea that was easy enough to reproduce 200 times, as well as a glaze scheme,” Strohl said. The only requirement was that the awards had to have “OCC 2013″ on them somewhere.

Olentangy Local School District students honored during the art show were:

• Olentangy High School: Brigid F., Amy H., Halie G., and Hannah A.
• Olentangy Liberty High School: Carter H., Caroline T., Hinako M., and Ellen Z.
• Olentangy Orange High School: Jonah M., Bailey B., Lillian C. and Sherman D.

OOHS students Savannah A., Erin E. and Madison S. with their winning art.

Olentangy Orange High School’s (OOHS) art department recently swept U.S. Rep. Pat Tiberi’s Congressional Art Competition, with all three top awards going to students from OOHS.

Madison S. took first-place honors as the competition’s winner. Savannah A. received the second-place award and Erin E. was named the third-place winner. Their artwork will now be on display at Tiberi’s office for an entire year and Safer’s work will continue on to a national exhibit in Washington D.C.

The regional art competition was on exhibit at the Orange Branch Library and judging was held April 29. The judges were local art professionals who all hold Master’s of Fine Art degrees. Sponsored by the Congressional Institute, the nationwide high school visual art competition is held to recognize and encourage artistic talent in each congressional district.

Two major media outlets have released their annual rankings of the best high schools in the state and all three of Olentangy’s high schools are ranked among the top of both lists.

The U.S. News and World Report released its “Best High Schools” ranking this week. The report analyzed achievement data from 22,000 public high schools across the nation and 752 from Ohio.

Olentangy Liberty High School (OLHS) is ranked fourth in the state in this year’s report, up from its seventh place ranking in last year’s report. OLHS is 152 in the national ranking with a college-readiness score of 66.3, a math proficiency score of 4.5 and a reading proficiency score of 4.4.

Olentangy High School (OHS) is ranked seventh in the report. That’s up from a 10th place ranking last year. OHS is 221st in the national ranking, with a college-readiness score of 59.2, a math proficiency score of 4.4 and a reading proficiency score of 4.3.

Olentangy Orange High School (OOHS) is ranked eleventh in the state, up from 16 in last year’s report. OOHS is ranked 310th in the national ranking, with a college-readiness score of 53.6, a math proficiency score of 4.4 and a reading proficiency score of 4.2.

U.S. News & World Report determined its college-readiness scores by examining the percentage of seniors who took and passed Advanced Placement (AP) exams. The math and reading proficiency scores reflect student performance on the Ohio Graduation Test (OGT).

The report comes on the heels of the Washington Post’s recently released 2013 list of “America’s Most Challenging High Schools” and Olentangy’s three high schools received the highest scores in central Ohio and ranked within the best in the state on that list, too.

The Washington Post ranks schools based upon Challenge Index scores.  The index is calculated by taking the total number of college-level tests (such as Advanced Placement exams) given at a school and dividing that by the number of graduates for that particular year.

According to the Challenge Index, Olentangy Orange High School (OOHS) ranked first in central Ohio, sixth in the state and 302nd in the nation with a score of 3.529.  Olentangy Liberty High School ranked second in central Ohio, eighth in the state and 337th in the nation with a score of 3.40.  Olentangy High School ranked third in central Ohio, ninth in the state and 345th in the nation with a score of 3.364.

Olentangy Orange High School’s (OOHS) diversity was showcased April 19, as students proudly displayed flags, shared food, music and clothing from their native countries during the school’s fifth annual Multicultural Fair.

More than 48 countries were represented at the fair via student-prepared booths featuring a variety of pictures and artifacts from the cultures that make up the student population. A number of students wore saris, kimonos and turbans as they traveled from booth to booth learning about other cultures.

Native cuisines prepared by the students were available and entertainment was provided in the form of student-performed cultural dances that took place several times throughout the event.

Sponsored by the OOHS student council, the Multicultural Fair is an important way to recognize, respect and celebrate the diversity within the school, said Madelyne L., the fair’s student coordinator.

“We have so many different cultures represented right here and I think it’s really cool to share that and learn those different perspectives,” she said.