When Katherine Jennings learned her ceramic and glass “Kat,” a cat-shaped pitcher, earned her a Gold Medal award from the national level of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards she was excited.

Katherine, a junior at Newtown High School, said this week, “I was just so surprised that I won… It was very exciting.”

She first learned about her accomplishment through an e-mail from her art teacher Carol Pelligra.

In January Katherine also earned a Gold Key award and the title of “Best in Ceramics” for her piece in the 2014 Connecticut Regional Scholastic Art Awards show, which was on display at the Silpe Gallery at the University of Hartford’s Hartford Art School, in West Hartford.

Now that she has earned a Gold Medal award from the national level of the competition, Katherine’s piece will be shipped to New York and will be on display in a traveling exhibition for up to two years, she said.

“I’m really proud,” Katherine said, adding, “I’m really thankful that [Ms Pelligra] entered it into the [2014 Connecticut Regional Scholastic Art Awards show].”

According to Ms Pelligra there were 40 medal winners from Connecticut in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards completion and only 11 of those were gold awards. Ms Pelligra also said Katherine is the only Connecticut student to earn a Gold Medal for a ceramic and glass piece.

According to the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards letter sent to Ms Pelligra on March 17, 255,000 works of art and writing were submitted to the competition this year, and only one percent of the submissions were recognized at the national level.

Katherine, along with the other students recognized at the national level, is invited to attend a national ceremony on June 6 at Carnegie Hall. The event will also be provided through a live webcast at 6 pm eastern time that evening at artandwriting.org.