Augur Bit Illustrations by an Artist of the Year Finalist

“Digital illustration by Nava Mach”—the credit has appeared beneath numerous visuals in The Augur Bit over the past year and a half. And on Oct. 21, senior Nava Mach was named one of ten finalists nationwide for the National Scholastic Press Association’s 2021-2022 Artist of the Year award based on a portfolio of her work that the Bit entered. The NSPA’s awards are among the most prestigious in high school journalism. Here, look back on a selection of her Bit illustrations from last school year.

This illustration accompanied an open letter to freshmen of color published in the 2021 back-to-school edition.

For an Opinions piece advocating a hybrid learning option, Nava showed how the setup serves students at home and in the classroom.

Nava drew a grasshopper on the Supreme Court’s steps when Ketanji Brown Jackson, a GDS trustee at the time, emerged as a possible nominee to the court.

This illustration ran alongside the Bit’s editorial on Student Press Freedom Day calling for editorial independence. The grasshoppers also appeared on the cover and back of the special pamphlet in which the editorial was printed.

After GDS became the subject of national attention during Jackson’s confirmation process, this drawing showed a proudly Hopper-green Jackson at the center of a constellation of controversy.

When the Bit published an editorial expressing hopes for the arrival of two new administrators, Nava drew High School Principal Yom Fox and Associate Head of School Meg Goldner Rabinowitz, whom most students had not met.

For an Opinions piece related to political closed-mindedness at GDS, Nava imagined Democratic donkeys on Davenport Street.
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