Presenting Lancers in the crowd: The Lancer Link has randomly selected one Lancer to be interviewed, giving us the opportunity to learn more about our fellow classmates. We met with Gianni Scuncio, a senior and a talented artist, who gave us insight into his personal story.

At a young age Gianni Scuncio lost his mother. Being very young, he was not able to share his emotions very well. He went to many therapists, but he found that the best way to express himself was through art. 

“It wasn’t my best art…but I was able to express it very well to my own opinion,” Scuncio said. ” Throughout the years my art has become better. I use my art as my own therapy instead of expressing myself to other people.”

Scuncio moved to Carlsbad five years after his mother’s death. Moving to a new city allowed him to have a fresh start, where he met new people and found a new home.

“Since moving here, I learned how to keep friendships, how to pick and choose my friends,” Scuncio said. “I have gone through some rough patches but like I said I have great friends to keep me going. As much as I am grateful to live here, I am excited for what the future holds for me.”

During his junior year, Scuncio was a part of the CHS art team that was dedicated to creating four pairs of custom Vans for the Vans Custom Culture Competition in New York. Their hard work and commitment won the Grand Prize, earning the art department $75,000.

“We created four different pairs of shoes: high tops, slip ons, classics and lace ups,” Scuncio said. “It had four different parts: local flavor, music, action sport and art. It took us about three and a half to four months to create the shoes. We competed against 3,000 schools and took home all three cash prizes. I got to meet the CEO of Vans, the CEO of Journey’s and the owner of the anti smoking truth campaign to ban teen smoking”.

After he graduates high school, Scuncio hopes to move on to bigger and better things. He plans to continue his passion for art in college and beyond.

“I plan on majoring in art or graphic design and minoring in business,” Scuncio said. “My future plan is to work for Vans, specifically the Vans custom culture division, the contest that we entered in, and also working with teenagers and promoting art in schools because art is a dying subject in school.”