DALLAS, Pa. — Three Penn State Wilkes-Barre students were selected as award recipients for 2024 from Arts at Hayfield, the nonprofit campus and community arts organization at Penn State Wilkes-Barre. The organization granted a total of $2,500 in academic awards to the students.
Arts at Hayfield’s awards are presented annually to academically and artistically accomplished students who demonstrate their commitment to the arts. Students are required to submit a detailed application that outlines their interest in the arts. Applicants are asked to describe their academic experiences and opinions about being a scholar. They also provide information on their personal interests, including those in support of the arts, and the positive impact they hope to make on the community in the future.
The highest award, the Irene Thomas Memorial Award, was presented to Junenoire Fonté, a fourth-year student majoring in information technology. She became involved in art and photography in middle and high school. After graduating from high school, she attended a photography school in Massachusetts, then headed to New York City to work as a freelance professional photographer. Fonté continues to work on a project for the Egyptian Art Department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Avalie Wolfe, a second-year student majoring in art history, is one of the runners-up. She works on art exhibits as an assistant at the Penn State Wilkes-Barre Friedman Art Gallery. Her interests include reading, researching and writing, and she enjoys writing a mix of fiction, non-fiction and horror fiction. Wolfe received an Honors Program award at Penn State Wilkes-Barre’s Celebration of Academic Excellence in May 2024.
Anna Smagin, the other runner-up, is a fourth-year student majoring in criminal justice. She has many achievements in music and dance. She took ballet classes and danced in performances at the Wilkes University Conservatory for the past 16 years. She also performed in piano recitals at Wilkes over a four-year period. Smagin hopes to become a lawyer and to continue dancing and giving back to her community.
Since the organization’s founding in 1984, Arts at Hayfield members have pursued a mission of promoting the arts for community members to experience and enjoy. Arts at Hayfield provides opportunities for local performers, musicians, crafters, artists and artisans and continues to form networks of individuals interested in helping promote the arts.
Arts at Hayfield regularly donates to public media resources and arts organizations such as WVIA, F.M. Kirby Center, NEPA Chamber Music Society, Back Mountain Memorial Library and the Penn State Wilkes-Barre Friedman Art Gallery, in addition to awarding annual scholarships to local Penn State Wilkes-Barre students like Fonté, Wolfe and Smagin who express interest in the arts.