Senior Rachel Knox was awarded the 2010 Shooting Stars Gala award March 28. This award celebrates Johnson County high school seniors who are talented artists.

Knox was awarded a first place scholarship of $1,400 for her two-dimensional art piece that art teacher Theresa Wallerstedt submitted to the gala.

Knox will use the scholarship at either Kansas State University or Maryville Unicersity in St. Louis, where she will attend either school’s interior design program.

Knox attended the award ceremony at Johnson County Community College, which was sponsored by the Arts Council of Johnson County. She competed with about 15 other artists in the two-dimensional art category, while about 150 other talented art students from the Shawnee Mission, Olathe and Blue Valley public school districts, and students from Rockhurst, Pembroke Hill, Bishop Miege and St. Thomas Aquinas high schools also participated.

‘I didn’t know it was going to be this big of a deal,’ Knox said. ‘But when I got [to the ceremony] I realized how intense it was… It was funny because I told my [extended] family that they didn’t have to come because I didn’t think I was going to win, so they left early. But then when I got back [home], they asked me how it went and I was like ‘ËœUm, I won’ and they were like ‘ËœAw!’ They were sad they missed it.’