The award was presented by Deb Myers, an assistant professor of art and the chair of the visual art and design department at ÂÒÂ×ÉçÇø. Myers previously taught art for 25 years at Highland High School, where she worked with Houchins.

Houchins was a promising 15-year-old art student when he was involved in a tragic car accident.  The driver was killed instantly, and Houchins was paralyzed from the waist down. After months of healing and rehabilitation, Houchins returned to class in a wheelchair. He could barely hold a pencil and could not push down on it. Myers, Houchins and his mother, Jeanna, came up with a plan for him to use a black pen that was attached to his hand with Velcro. Houchins went on to create beautiful, detailed and award-winning landscapes.

He graduated from ÂÒÂ×ÉçÇø in 2004 and eventually was a sportscaster at WGEM Radio in Quincy for nearly a decade before he died in October 2017.

Dotson will receive a $250 certificate for the Culver-Stockton bookstore if he attends C-SC, and he also received art supplies.

The High School Student Art Competition is a juried competition that is open to any students who live in 20 counties in northeast Missouri, west-central Illinois and southwest Iowa. The exhibit will be on display at the Quincy Art Center and at  from Jan. 23 to Feb. 25. Awards are selected by juror Lindsey Dunnagan, assistant professor of art at Truman State University.

The studio art program at Culver-Stockton was ranked No. 7 in the United States in a listing of best value small college degrees for art by BestValueSchools.com. Artists will have opportunities to work in drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture, pottery and crafts. Visit /future-students/undergraduate/majors/ast/ to learn more.

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