Andy Wei, CHS senior, was this year’s Grand Champion at the Houston Rodeo for his art piece. Wei started taking art seriously as a freshman and began participating in the rodeo as a sophomore.

“I received “Reserve Class Champion” in graphite as a sophomore. Junior year, I received “Class Champion” in color pencils.” He continued by saying, “This year was my last year competing, and I was fortunate enough to end it with a bang and receive the ‘Grand Champion’.”

Every year that he won, he was given a cash prize. When asked where he put those funds to use, he said he had donated most of the funds and plans on keeping the giving tradition alive with this year’s cash price.

Giving is one thing Andy Wei and Anton Zhou, reserve grand champion, share. A few weeks ago, Andy and Anton organized a benefit art gallery to promote the district’s art program. The gallery was open for about two hours with over 300 attendees and they auctioned off around $1,500 worth of artwork.

While he’s not working on his beautiful art, Andy enjoys playing basketball, taking photos, playing video games, and hanging out with his friends and family.

For college, he is hoping to be accepted into the Brown University/RISD Joint Program, where he plans to major in economics with a minor or double major in art.

“I’ll go wherever the knowledge and passion takes me,” he said.

When asked what he would like to say to all the rising art students at Clements, he said, “Art at any other school would be a breeze; however, you chose Clements. Put your best effort forward, manage your time efficiently, and you’ll do just fine. Just like anything else you encounter in life, passion is what will take you to the next level.”