Lucy Britt, a 2024 graduate of Centralia High School, considers visual art a "passionate career choice" and not just a job. She says that painting has provided her a way to "convey emotions, stories and ideas too complex or abstract" that words alone could not. She won top prizes at the Belleville Art On the Square secondary school competition and was an assistant in the art program while in high school. She will be studying to complete a Bachelor of Arts degree in Arts Education at Eastern Illinois University and then plans to get a Master of Arts degree to enable her to teach on the collegiate level.

Finnegan Rhys Pierson, who found art "was a way to express myself and cope with the challenges I faced", had finished his Associate Arts degree at De Anza College in California when the pandemic suddenly closed schools. He found individual contract work doing illustrations for various companies: Netflix, Samsung, and the Jim Henson Co. Last year, through a Language Exchange Program at California State University, he went to Florence, Italy, heart of the Italian Renaissance, where he studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze and taught in high school art programs. Next year, he will finish a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art Illustration and continue studies for a B.A. in art education, a B.A. in Italian studies, and a minor in art history of the Baroque period. Finnegan believes art can be a "tool for connection and education" and his goal is "to use my education to resonate with students in the foundations of art and history, inspiring them through teaching and creating art that reflects the rich traditions and innovations of past and present." Eventually, he would like to complete a Master's Degree in Art and teach on the collegiate level.