Student receives US art scholarship - ACS Hillingdon

15/04/2019

Student receives US art scholarship

A student from ACS Hillingdon International School has been awarded a scholarship to study at the prestigious Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), based in Georgia, United States.

Filmon Teckle, aged 17, will spend his first year at SCAD’s renowned Hong Kong campus.

As part of the SCAD application process, Filmon was required to submit twenty different artworks from his impressive portfolio, developed while studying for the International Baccalaureate Diploma, taking art, physics and psychology.

At face value this is perhaps an unusual subject combination but it has served his art portfolio well, as Filmon explains:

“My IB studies encourage an exploration of connections between things and there are numerous connections to be found between science and art,” he said.

One particular work presents the physics concept of ‘harmonic motion’ – showing how an object attached to a spring swings from one point and then back to the middle. By filling different sized bottles with paint and attaching them to a moving spring above a blank canvas, an artwork is created below.

This work also has a psychological aspect symbolising how people deal with stress at different rates:

As the bottle apertures increased, so too did the rate of flow of paint and the messier the artwork became, articulating through art that stress is not necessarily a straightforward process to overcome.

Asil Al-Shammari, ACS Hillingdon’s University and College Counsellor, encouraged Filmon to pursue his artistic ambitions and helped him with his applications.

“I can’t stress enough how supportive and important this help was,” said Filmon.

“Our counsellors have a very broad knowledge of institutions and courses which really helps you appreciate the vast range of options to explore.”

It was Ms Al-Shammari who also suggested that Filmon presents his own clothing line as part of his university applications to demonstrate business skills, creativity and initiative.

The clothing line is a project Filmon has developed while studying at ACS, and includes T-shirts printed with his own designs which are then sold online.

Born in Eritrea, Filmon moved to the UK at the age of nine. He was awarded an ACS Hillingdon scholarship in 2017.

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