As Principal Ms. Mary Jo Fosselman-King, TCHS PTSA President Ms. Saxon and PTSA Reflections Chairperson Ms. Amy Besaw call Freshmen Hayley Rains and Joann Wang up, the girls proudly show off their Reflections medals to the clicking cameras, surrounded by the warm applause and smiles of their loved ones.
This year’s theme was “Believe, Dream, Inspire,” which manifested into Wang’s original story of a boy named Oliver Lavoie and Rain’s illustration of the band Green Day.
Wang’s story explored the subject of bullying through the eyes of her main character, Oliver Lavoie, whose schoolmates discouraged him from speaking his mind. At the end of the story, he becomes an inspiration to others by being able to step up to his scornful peers and bravely sharing his vision of a better environment, for those who have been bullied.
“To me, the theme means that anyone should be able to believe in themselves and what they’re doing and dream big,” Wang said. “This causes something like the domino effect and they’ll eventually inspire someone one way or another.”
Wang had entered the contest for the last two years in the Literature category as well. She won first in the first year and earned second in the previous year in her respective grades.
Rains, who has also participated in previous years, took part in the Visual Arts category by submitting an illustration of her own form of inspiration, Green Day.
“It relates to the theme because I believe that they will not break up. I dream of meeting them someday and they inspired me to play guitar,” Rains said. “They’re my favorite band and I really wanted to draw them.”
The judges of each category rated the participants’ works based on three criteria: Interpretation of Theme, Artistic Merit/Creativity and Mastery of Medium. At the February PTA meeting in the Senate Room, they were awarded with Reflections medals of their respective categories, along with a $25 award.
“We would love to see this contest grow,” Ms. Besaw said. “The arts are becoming less and less recognized as students focus more on academics. It is a wonderful opportunity for students to showcase their talents and we have so many incredibly talented students at TCHS.”
Each year, the theme is typically revealed around May, in order to give participants the summer between then and the deadline in November to come up with their best works in one of six categories: Dance Choreography, Film Production, Literature, Music Composition, Photography or Visual Arts. “The world would be a better place if…” is the theme for next year.
“As a writer, I can more easily express my creativity while keeping to a prompt, or a theme, in this case,” Wang said. “I’ve become more aware of situations around me as a person, after having to use specific dilemmas around the community in my writing.”
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