We are proud to celebrate TMA student Lukas, who was awarded a Gold Key in the 2026 Scholastic Art Awards, the highest regional honor in the competition. His award-winning submission, a video titled Robot, is currently featured in the Scholastic Art Awards Exhibition at the South Bend Museum of Art.
Lukas created the video using Blender, a professional animation program he has been studying since the age of eight. The animation showcases a creative robotics innovation concept: a drone sailboat designed to scan the Great Lakes for shipwrecks. In the video, Lukas focused on producing realistic environmental effects around the boat, especially the detailed wave motion and water rendering.
The project was part of this year’s robotics innovation work. To bring the concept to life, the robotics team also 3D printed the sailboat from Lukas’s animation model to use as a hands-on demonstration piece.
The Scholastic Art Awards program celebrates the creativity of students across 19 counties in Northwest Indiana and Southwest Michigan. This year’s competition received more than 3,400 submissions, with only about 500 works earning Gold or Silver Key recognition. Lukas’s Gold Key means his work will now advance to the national level of the competition, with results announced in March.
We are incredibly proud of Lukas for sharing his talent and creativity. His work reflects the curiosity, imagination, and initiative that Montessori education encourages in every student.