This program is the jewel of our educational efforts—an event attended by 600 students from over 30 schools in previous years. RAISE Foundation, Cal Poly Technic State University SLO, California Graphic Arts Education Association, The Castle Press, Graphic Arts Club of Los Angeles, Grafico, Inc., Kodak, Micro Perfect Systems, and Protrade, Inc. join forces to fund this event.
The focus of this program is student participation. Each school designs and prints t-shirts identifying its graphic arts program. The t-shirts are judged for originality and print quality and cash prizes are given to the winning schools.
There is also an academic competition, which is comprised of three components. The first two components (a technical project and a written terminology test) are used to identify five schools to compete in the Academic Challenge (Jeopardy type) game at the Assembly. The competition is intense--and highly exciting--with the students in the audience picking a team to cheer on to victory. Download a flyer with all the details for the 2012 Competition here.
Technical Project
The Technical Competition is the first of three rounds of competition for graphic arts students participating in the annual Academic Competition. Graphic art teams have to produce winning technical entries to qualify to go on to the second round of competition. See the details and rules for 2012's competition here.
In 2011 the kids produced truck wraps. Here they are in alphabetical order by school:
College Competition
The design and production competition for college students was initiated in 2006 by the PIASC Education committee to provide college students with an opportunity to compete against their peers and win scholarships to continue their education in graphic communications.
Every year the Education Committee comes up with a different project where students can use their design abilities and production skills. See the details, rules, and prizes for 2012's competition here.
In 2011 the college students created truck wraps. The winners will receive cash prizes from the RAISE Foundation for $600, $500, and $400 at the May 19th Academic Challenge.
The 2011 Entries
Click on thumbnail to see a larger view of each entry. Listed alphabetically by school, ribbons indicate the winners:
Written Exam
Students go through a written exam to determine the five finalists for the academic challenge.
The 2011 Written Exam
Students have a run through of the Academic Challenge Game to prepare for the final round at the Student Assembly.

Academic Competition
The Final Round of competition is a jeopardy-like Question and Answer showdown between the five schools that scored highest in the written test in front of schools, teachers, and industry members. Again this year it took place during the Top Management Network meeting held at Tamayo's Restaurant. See the Winners page for details on who won!

Click each school name to see the Thank You letters we received from the following participating schools/students for this year's program:
Canoga Park
El Camino Real High School
Grant High School
South Pasadena High School
Venice High School
T-Shirt Competition
This year's competition will provide students with the opportunity to design and create a t-shirt to promote one of their High School's sports teams. It can be any sport that is played at the school (e.g. Baseball, Basketball, Football, Swim, Track, etc.) All T-Shirts and storyboards must be submitted to PIASC by
Thursday, March 29, 2012 before 5:00 pm! Download the flyer with complete details here.
Here are last year's entries in alphabetical order by school, ribbons indicate awards won, detailed in the caption below:

