2017-2018 National PTA Reflections Awards

PTA REFLECTIONS ART CELEBRATION

Parents and students from all six Mercer island schools, as well as local private schools, gathered together at the Mercer Island High School Performing Arts Center on Monday February 5th to honor the winners of the 2017/2018 PTA Reflections Art Competition. The competition is organized and sponsored by the IMS PTSA and the Mercer Island PTA Council.

A panel of judges judged almost 340 student entries across 6 different genres including Visual Arts, Dance Choreography, Film Production, Literature, Photography and Music Composition. Reflections offers students the opportunity to create original works of art in the six genres. The theme for this year was “Within Reach”.

Congratulations to all the students who entered, and especially to the following who won their respective divisions and whose entries were forwarded to the Reflections State competition:

High School

Hunter Yetman	Sarah Wang

Middle SCHOOL

Kelly Kim	Ella Schaps

Grade 3-5 Divison

Karenna Stone	Adelaide Swenson

Grade k-2 Division

Audrey Cui	Nemo Li

A huge thank you to all the Reflections Chairs who did such a fantastic job collecting entries, organizing the art work, publicizing the competition and assisting with our celebratory evening: Jocelyn Barber, Sharon Brown, Bao-Tran Nguyen, Rosa Teorell, Nicole Cui, Erin Vivion, Lori Hamiwka and Joci Besecker.

Huge thanks to Donna Colosky, Superintendent of Mercer Island School District, for attending the ceremony and handing out awards and certificates, and also to Laura Totten, CCR Photography and Yearbook teacher at Mercer Island High School, for all her help in publicizing the competition at the High School.

Look out for students’ exhibitions and art workshops at Mercer Island venues throughout the coming year and keep drawing, writing, painting, creating, composing, photographing, filming and being creative. Next year’s theme will be ‘Heroes Around Us’….See you then!

WINNERS AT STATE LEVEL:

We have just been advised that Mercer Island has 4 winners in the Reflections Art Competition at state level:

Island Park Elementary’s Sophia Chou (3rd grade) was awarded a 3rd Place (Award of Merit) for her Dance Choreography “Dancing Dream”

Lakeridge Elementary’s Audrey Cui (2nd grade) was honored with a 1st Place Award (Outstanding Interpretation) for her stop motion animation “There are always friends around you”

MIHS Sophomore Sarah Wang was honored with a 2nd place (Award of Excellence) for her musical composition “Warrior”

Lakeside High School’s Ariella Nelson was awarded 1st Place (Outstanding Interpretation) in the Film Production category for her film “Reaching for Health”

A panel of experts selected these winners from thousands of entries across the state. The Mercer Island PTA Council previously awarded these students first place in the local Mercer Island Reflections competition.

Ariella Nelson and Audrey Cui’s work will now be sent to the National PTA Reflections competition in Washington DC.

Congratulations to all the winners at State, and good luck to Ariella and Audrey as you proceed to Nationals!