On January 12, Colonel John WheelerMiddle School in Crown Point, host-ed an evening open house to congrat-

ulate and announce the winners of the 2009-1010 “Reflections ArtExhibit” with the theme — “Beauty Is ...”The 11 first-place entries will be sent to Indianapolis for state

competition and state winners qualify for the nationals inCalifornia. “This event gives students another opportunity toshowcase their talents in areas that may not be clearly recognizedin a normal school day,” said Tim Vassar, school principal. “I amproud of the effort our kids put into this and congratulate them ona job well done.”“None of this would have been possible without the driving

leadership of PTA co-chairmen of the Reflections committee,Colleen Hatami and Barb Siebel,” said PTApresident MikeAirey.Dr. Teresa A. Eineman, superintendent of the Crown Point

Community Schools, supports the open house as a parent and aneducational leader. Her daughter, Abigail Eineman, won two first-place awards in visual arts and literature categories.“I want to support our wonderful parent groups as they add

such a significant dimension to our education program. This iswhy I make it a priority to attend many evening events, including‘Reflections,’” Eineman said.“The music of Pomp and Circumstance begins and ends our

high school graduation ceremony: A fitting tribute to the fourth‘C’ of our Portrait of a Crown Point Graduate. Our graduates leaveour schools with a symbolic portrait of six C’s, and a real-life setof skills for college preparedness and workforce readiness,” shesaid.“They are: College: Value, pursue, and obtain post secondary

education and training; Career: Experience, develop, and practice

professional ethics, attitudes, and skills; Citizenship: Advocate,initiate, and engage in self and community improvement;Creativity: Imagine, construct, and communicate ideas, emotions,and solutions; Courage: Demonstrate character and leadership

through words, decisions, and actions; and Culture: Identify,appreciate, and respect the perspectives and expressions of diversepeople, places, and times.”

Debora Bass, PTA publicitychairman of the Reflectionsexhibit, said “PTA believes allchildren deserve a quality artseducation and encourages stu-dents to pursue artistic expres-sion through participation in itsannual Reflections Program. “The program offers students

the opportunity to create worksof art for fun and recognition.Students in preschool throughgrade 12 are encouraged to cre-ate and submit works of art in sixareas: dance choreography, filmproduction, literature, musicalcomposition, photography, andthe visual arts (drawing, paint-ing, printmaking, and collage).Students participate in theReflections Program by submit-ting entries to their local PTA orPTSA. For nearly 40 years, theprogram has encouraged mil-lions of students across thenation and in American schoolsoverseas to create works of art.The Reflections Program was

started in 1969 by then ColoradoPTA President Lou Anderson. “The Wheeler PTA sought out

judges for each of the six cate-gories this year for the 2009-2010 program.The judges select two entries

in each of the categories so thatup to twelve entries can be sent

to the state level of judging. There is also a national level of judg-ing where states submit one entry per category per age group tothe national level.The following is a list of the winners of the Reflections 2009-

2010 “Beauty is…” program:

22 Thursday, January 28, 2010 LLooccaall CP The Star

Wheeler Middle School hosts‘Reflections’ multi-media event

Art Adventure I Sam Dalkilic-Miestowski

Photos above and below —Scott Brandush/StarPhoto at left provided to the Star

At left, Pano Kostovros, won a first-place award forfilm. Above, Sarah Hall, holds her trophy and first-placephoto at the Reflections program. Below, DanielleYagelski was one of the first-place winners in the visu-al arts category during the awards banquet.

Visual Arts1st place - Abigail Eineman 1st place - Danielle

Yagelski2nd place - Rebekah Embry2nd place Kaitlyn

Kutanovski3rd place - Kristina

Branoska3rd place - Taylor Beckman

Honorable MentionsGabriell RichmondJesse HummelBailey MoresBrittany ArdJustice EspinozaCaley RainfordBrittnee MilesMatthew Soper

Jessica AguilarLarry MarczewskiMac AndersonRichard ScheibenreifCharles LiodosAnna AucoinJori MegausCaitly BaroevichAlexis Linbeck

Photography1st place -Sarah Hall1st place -Simone Siew 2nd place -Jennifer Pudlo2nd place -Meagan Petho 3rd place -Ali Quinn3rd place - Kitty Gru

Honorable MentionsKarissa PudloChelsey Stinnett

The Star CP LLooccaall Thursday, January 28, 2010 33

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Ariana AndersonKarli ChocholekJustin VandergriffFilm1st place - Pano Kostovros 1st place - Jessica AvilarMusic1st place - Dylan Taylor1st place - Simone Seiw2nd place - Yunna(Kitty) GruLiterature1st place - Abigail Eineman1st place - Simone Siew2nd place - Alyssa GuritzDance1st- place - Kathy Cacovski

Pano Kostovros, 7th grader first place winner inthe film category said the theme of last year’sReflection’s program was “Wow.” “My film consisted of special effects and 3D ani-

mation. Last year my film ‘A Trombone, A Meteor,A Sandwich’ won first place at Wheeler MiddleSchool, first place in the state of Indiana, and it alsowon the National Award of Merit. I created this filmwhen I was in sixth grade. This idea came about froma dream that I had about a meteor shower. The storywas about a young boy who wished upon a meteorfor a sandwich; and this same meteor which almostkills him when it hits the earth, grants him his wish.” To view this film go to this link:

http://www.ptareflections.org/cs/program_gallery/division_winners?cat=6&div=middle. When there, clickthe lower right-hand corner — A Trombone, AMeteor, A Sandwich, How times have changed. I know I wasn’t thinking

about such grand ideas back in seventh grade. Next, I sat next to what would become another

first-place winner in the musical category, DylanTaylor who tied with Simone Seiw. Taylor won the school’s Musical Composition and

his piece is now moving on to state judging, which hewon the previous two years.” Taylor discussed hiscomposition and provided the following: “My piece iscalled “Perceptions of the Abstract,” which is a titlethat had a bit to do with the thoughts I was having atthe time, after reading existentialist philosophers,such as Heidegger and Sartre and thinking about howhumanity perceives its surroundings. The piece isaround two and a half minutes (largely due to the fiveminute time restraints). I personally consider it unfin-ished, and was planning on elaborating the themes andmaybe orchestrating it, and turning it into a 15-minute

piece. I would describe it as minimalist, taking cuesfrom Philip Glass and progressive rock. It was rough-ly recorded, but I believe that its generally lo-fi soundcontributes to its simplicity, occasional dissonance,and overall impact. “I submitted the piece due to my enjoyment of pre-

vious Reflections exhibitions that I had also won andappreciated. As for my love of music, my ability toplay eight instruments and owning an obscure andfar-reaching CD and vinyl collection says it all.”

Taylor plays violin, piano, any keyboard, guitar,banjo, mandolin, bass guitar, and drums. He beganplaying the violin at age six and it is still his favoriteinstrument. When asked what inspired him, he replied:

“I was inspired to become a musician by listeningto classical music, mainly Romantic composers, but Ieventually got into experimental classical musicianssuch as Philip Glass and Terry Riley. The record thatconvinced me to play and write my own music was“The Velvet Underground and Nico”, which in mymind was the album that convinced the world thatgood music doesn’t have to be melodic and complex.My hugest musical inspiration was Bob Dylan, who isprobably my musical idol. I also come from a musicalfamily, my mother is a pianist and my father is a drum-mer. “The music I write is more artsy...I liken it to

‘post-rock’ or ‘art rock’ and maybe even ‘avant-garde.’ I prefer to create long, ambient improvisationsand instrumentals, and douse even my most conven-tional music in a thick haze of electronic experimen-talism. This piece was very structured and composed,and thus lacks a lot of the emotion that much of myother music conveys. Nevertheless, it is a rough yetacceptable sample of what I enjoy .” Photography Honorable Mention recipient Justin

Vandergriff had a wonderful large scale framed 11” x14” framed color landscape photograph. Justin said,“The title was...Beauty is... in the Changing Sunsets. Itook this picture while I was at work with my mom inMerrillville. I went to take out the garbage for her andsaw this beautiful sunset. I ran in the bank and bor-rowed my mom’s friend’s camera and then decided totake the photo of it by being close to a hanging treebranch. It was Oct. 30 about 5:30 p.m..”When asked about his interest in photography, he

replied, “I really began having an interest in photog-raphy when I got my DSI. We went to the GrandCanyon on our family vacation, and I began to seehow beautiful some of the pictures I took were. Lastyear I did some video work for a friend who was doinga dance video for the competition, and she won firstplace. That is one reason I decided to try to enter somekind of art this year. I learned this year, that throughentering the contest , that there are some things I needto do to take a better photo. I am looking forward toentering next year too.” “I am so glad that Justin took a chance on entering

this contest this year,” said Sandra Vandergriff,Justin’s mother. “I think this is a wonderful way to getkids involved with the arts. It is also a way for kidswho normally don’t get noticed due to not being intosports to get noticed and to get encouraged to reachnew heights in their dreams and desires. I look forwardto seeing what new things Justin will enter next year.”My childhood friend, Ane Talevski who was in gift-

ed art programs with me in the Merrillville School,was very proud of her students and their achievementsas she is one of Wheeler’s art teachers. A talented woman who holds two undergraduate

degrees and a teaching certificate, Talevski has a FineArts Degree from the Art Institute of Chicago as wellas a degree from Purdue in science. She’s traveled allover the United States and has experienced manydiverse artistic endeavors. She graciously gave me a tour of the beautiful art

facilities at Wheeler and showed me numerous worksfrom her talented students. Talevski cannot be morethrilled with her position at Wheeler and with the sup-port of the faculty, PTA, school leadership and stu-dents for the Reflections exhibit.

Photos provided to the StarWinners include from top left, Justin Vandergriff,honorable mention for his 11" x 14" color land-scape photograph. Dylan Taylor took home afirst place award for music. At right an exampleof two dimensional art; above, Abigail Einemanwon two first place prizes for literature and art.