Sonja Juffer and Jeff Zimpel are especially proud art teachers this week at Shorewood High School, as their students' artwork is recognized for its professional quality by the Scholastic Art Awards, and Stone Creek Coffee, which will use student designs on its packaging for the new Shorewood Blend.

Students' work on display at the Milwaukee Art Museum

Six Shorewood students earned Gold Key Awards, one earned a Silver Key, and three earned honorable mentions in the national Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, from the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. Their work, selected regionally out of 1200 submissions by a group of professional artists, will be on display at the Milwaukee Art Museum until March 6.

Juffer recommended that many of her students submit works, with a total of 32 pieces going into the contest from Shorewood, and 10 winners coming out.

One Gold Key winner, Asia Cruz, was selected as an American Visions Nominee — an award for the five "best in show" pieces in the region across all categories.

"It's a real honor," Juffer said. "It's great to see students in the arts getting the recognition they deserve."

To see what the artists have to say about their pieces, view the gallery above.

Teacher pitches new coffee blend with student artwork

While attending graduate school at Cardinal Stritch and working at Stone Creek, before becoming an art teacher at SHS, Zimpel couldn't help but notice the distinct design of Stone Creek's brand, imagining how he could craft similar designs for them.

"I thought, 'I know exactly how they do that,'" Zimpel siad.

Recently hired to teach graphic arts at SHS, Zimpel finally found the right opportunity. He assigned his students the task of creating designs for a hypothetical Shorewood blend, using the design program Adobe Illustrator.

Zimpel pitched the idea to Stone Creek Owner Eric Resch, who agreed to create the blend and feature four different student designs on the packaging during different time periods beginning Feb. 27 and running until April 4. The design that sells the best will be featured on the Milwaukee Blend. 

"The greatest thing about it was that they were understanding how a professional does something and getting really excited about it," Zimpel said. "Students were asking me if they could come in at lunch, or if I would stay after school with them to work on it."

As shown in the gallery above, Stone Creek will use Will Johnson's work Feb. 27 to March 4, Anthony Sibila's March 5-11, Diana Yakshimaniedova's March 12-18, and Elliot Kucharczyk's March 19-25. They will all run together March 26 to April 1.