by staff writer Waverley Achacoso

The Bay Farm PTA Reflections winners were announced in December. Many students from all grades submitted entries, and the competition was fierce.

Reflections is a program started by the National PTA to work art into students’ educations. An annual program, thousands of students participate in Reflections. Students can choreograph a dance, produce a film, write literature, compose some music, take photographs, or perform visual arts that relate to the theme. This year, Bay Farm allowed 3D art into the contest, but the packing of the beautiful 3D art was very hard.

The divisions were Primary (K-2), Intermediate (3-5), and Middle School (6-8).

The 2015-2016 theme was “Let Your Imagination Fly.” The theme was created by Rachel Sperry from Northwood, North Dakota, whose theme was inspired by her ability to explore her imagination when composing artwork. “I tell myself to let my imagination fly when writing and sketching,” Rachel said.

Sixth-grade parent Jocelyn Holash took the job as Reflections Program Chair this year. “I appreciate how much art enriches our lives and I think it is an important to encourage and nurture young artists,” Ms. Holash said. “Bay Farm is a great school and I would hate for them not to participate in a program like Reflections.”

Reflections at Bay Farm is not mandatory, although 98 entries came in by October 26, which was when the entries were due. “Seeing how amazed the judges were at the quality of the submissions was my favorite part,” Ms. Holash said.

The winners are listed here:

Visual Arts:

Primary:
1st) Ruby Rawski
2nd) Kathleen Tang

Intermediate:
1st) Teva Risse
2nd) Michael Orshkov and Daniela Petersen (tie)
Honorable Mention: Laura Gee, Kaisa Kim, Darren Heng, and Sarah Park

Middle School:
1st) Helen Doyle
2nd) Heather Yeung

Photography:

Intermediate:
1st) Noah Klube
2nd) Jessica Bentley

Middle School:
1st) Natalia Celebrini
2nd) Landon Gee

Special Artist:
1st) Justin Ong

Musical Composition:

Intermediate:
1st) Nicolas Ferguson
2nd) Maia Johns

Film Production:

Intermediate:
1st) Jayln Kwong

Literature:

Primary:
1st) Matthew Hung

Intermediate:
1st) Lucy Lin
2nd) Tyler Ma and Jaden Smith (tie)

Middle School:
1st) Saima Hassan
2nd) Liang Goh

Thanks to Jocelyn Holash for running Reflections this year, and also the people who made this contest work. We can’t wait to have another great Reflections contest next year.