As a promising young artist and animator just barely into her teens, she certainly seems to have a jump on the competition.

At the age of 15, this aspiring artist was named a state arts scholar last year, earning scholarship money, recognition from top government officials and a highly competitive spot in one of the country's most prestigious art schools.

Elizabeth says her love of creating art began just a few short years ago.

"It was around eighth grade. I started doodling in my notebook in class," she remembers.

As her interest in drawing grew, Elizabeth began honing her skills by drawing more often in her spare time. Her mother, Lee Ann Ray, remembers how a neighbor used to lend her a gigantic drafting board to practice on.

"Lizzie just sat there for hours and drew and drew," she recalls.

Over time, Elizabeth says, her tastes evolved, and she now focuses primarily on Disney-style animation.

Elizabeth says she truly became aware of her dream to become an animator when she and her mother became members of a cartoon art museum in San Francisco.

"They display all kinds of comic strip art and historical pieces like Charles Schultz and Dr. Seuss," says Lee Ann. "They also have contemporary artists come in for talks."

Meeting successful artists and learning more about their craft was exciting, Elizabeth says.

One day they had the opportunity to purchase tickets to a fundraiser for the museum. Included in their ticket was the opportunity to go on a tour of Pixar Animation Studios and attend a private screening of advance scenes of the upcoming animated film, Finding Nemo .

"After she saw that, it wasn't that hard to imagine this could be a career she could go into," says Lee Ann. "We were meeting people who were doing it every day."

Not long after, her mother came across a call for entries in the California State Summer School for the Arts program in a school newsletter. The program recognizes outstanding student artists and gives them a spot in Innerspark, the prestigious summer program at the California Institute of the Arts in southern California, with a scholarship. CalArts is known for educating many future animators who have gone on to work for such companies as Pixar.

So Elizabeth began preparing her submission for the program. Applicants are asked to submit three pieces of original art, a letter telling why they want to enter the field of animation, letters of recommendation and a "flipbook," which is a short book of still pictures that, when the pages are flipped from one to the next rapidly, makes a cartoon come to life. Elizabeth's flipbook cartoon, "Stargazer," featured a young girl sitting in a field, drawn in black and white, who sees a brightly-colored shooting star in the sky. She reaches out and grabs it, and it turns her into color as she shoots through the sky with it.

Elizabeth wrote a letter describing how meeting the Pixar animators inspired her to go after a career in animation.

"I realized how fun and exciting a project like Finding Nemo must have been. [Andrew Stanton, the creator] said it was challenging and a lot of hard work, but the best animation always is. Since then I've wanted to become an animator and I am hoping that the program at Innerspark will be the first step toward realizing my dream," she wrote.

Elizabeth also included a letter of recommendation from Anita Parsons, director of the Walden West outdoor school in Saratoga. Parsons had selected Elizabeth to design a logo and illustration for the school to appear on merchandise, including T-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, tote bags, bumper stickers and more.

"She was amazing. I told her the idea I wanted, and she has a really good sense; she really listens," says Parsons. "She came up with a great drawing; I thought it was very fitting for Walden West."

"She works like a professional--she doesn't just do what she wants; she knew that she was creating something that would be right for us," adds Parsons. "She took it very seriously. She's so talented, and it's so natural to her. She also puts in a phenomenal amount of time to improving her skills."

Months later, Elizabeth held in her hand a letter that began, "Congratulations on being accepted ... "

Elizabeth and her family were invited to attend a reception with Arts Council Silicon Valley. It was there that she truly learned what she had accomplished. More than 1,300 students had applied for the program, and only 510 were accepted. Out of that 510, only one out of every four was accepted into the animation program--and Elizabeth was one of them.

That night, Elizabeth was honored as a 2004 California Arts Scholar. She was awarded a gold medal bearing an inscription by Gov. Schwarzenegger, and several certificates of recognition from the California State Senate, the state Legislature, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, the Arts Council Silicon Valley and California State Summer School for the Arts directors and trustees.

"It was a big deal, bigger than I certainly thought it was going to be. It wasn't until we got to the reception that we realized she had accomplished something really interesting and big," recalls Lee Ann. She remembers many were amazed that Elizabeth was accepted as a freshman, since most of the others were juniors and seniors.

Elizabeth embarked on her summer journey from July 12 through Aug. 9. She says the first few days started out simple--they were asked to do assignments like drawing an object morphing into another object and animating a bouncing ball. Later, they went into figure drawing rooms, and Elizabeth remembers a challenging assignment with a model.

"There was a model posing, and there was a timer, so she would pose for like 30 seconds, and you had to draw it," she explains. "It got faster and faster, down to 20 seconds, then 10 seconds, then five seconds. That was hard, because you were really rushed; you couldn't get hooked into detail. You had to just get the figure down."

Elizabeth remembers her days were filled with interesting animation projects.

"During class we mostly did figure drawing, and after lunch every day we would meet in the Bijou Theater and watch animations done by other animators in the business and take notes on it. Then we would go back into the classroom and the teachers would work with us and teach us different techniques," she recalls.

Despite all the hard work, Elizabeth says, she also had a lot of fun with the other students.

"It was really fun; when you get down there you have a lot of freedom," she says. "Even though you have a lot of homework, you get to hang out and make friends."

"They treat them like adults," says Lee Ann. "I think it's a great chance to grow up. Kids don't ever get treated like adults. Lizzie came back a different person--an older person, more disciplined."

These days, Elizabeth is busily preparing her submission for a second summer in the program. She says it is much more difficult to get accepted a second time, so this year Elizabeth is using some of the skills she gained last summer and preparing a VHS tape of computer animation instead of a flipbook.

"I recently got a tablet that lets you draw right onto the computer, then upload it onto the TV and record it onto a VHS tape," Elizabeth explains. "Right now it's a little girl with a teddy bear walking; it's a walk cycle, which is one of the things we did down at [CalArts]. I am thinking about having the girl throw the teddy bear up in the air and catch it, too. [The purpose] is to show you have an understanding of motion."

"If you're denying 75 percent of the applicants, you really have to justify why you should get in a second time," says Lee Ann.

Elizabeth says she recently was paid for her work designing a website for a local "earth goddess," and she is negotiating a contract to create art for a local shirt-printing business. She says if it turns out that she doesn't end up pursuing a career in animation in the future, she is also interested in films.

But Elizabeth is very clear about one thing--she sees no reason to let go of her dream of becoming an animator ... not yet, anyway.

Elizabeth says her first love was Japanese-style anime, but her tastes have evolved and she now primarily focuses on Disney-style animation.