Great Students

Chris Ma, a freshman at Richard Montgomery High School, won the annual Wheaton Arts Parade and Festival poster competition. His winning design will be used to publicize the 2018 event scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 23. Ma’s design, which captures the parade theme, “Parade the Triangle,” also will be used on programs, banners, T-shirts and other promotional materials.
The contest was open to students of all ages in Montgomery County. As first prize winner, Ma was awarded $300. His design was selected from among 40 entries by a committee of local artists. The “Parade the Triangle” theme centers on how the parade and festival bring the community together to celebrate Wheaton’s local artists, diverse cultures and designation as a Maryland Arts and Entertainment District.
The winning design can be viewed here.
“I tried to capture the vivid and diverse art and culture of Wheaton and I hope this poster will lure people of all ages to come celebrate and enjoy the parade and festival,” said Ma.
The 2018 festival will take place on Sunday, Sept. 23, with the parade starting at 10 a.m. and the festival running until 5 p.m.
The event is supported in part by funding from Montgomery County government and the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, Westfield Wheaton Mall and numerous local businesses and community organizations.
Literacy Comes Alive at Briggs Chaney Middle School
Students at Briggs Chaney Middle School read their original creative writing and practiced their public speaking skills during a literacy celebration on March 9. The audience included their peers and teachers. The event, which was coordinated by teacher Jenise Leach, also recognized the birthday of Dr. Seuss and Read Across America Day.
Students at Two MCPS Schools Honored for Documentary Films
Students at Montgomery Blair High School and Eastern Middle School won awards from C-SPAN for documentary films submitted to its 2018 StudentCam competition.
C-SPAN awarded 33 10th and 11th grade Blair students $8,000 for 14 prize-winning documentaries in the competition. C-SPAN received 2,985 films from more than 5,700 students—the most entries in the 14 years of the competition. Montgomery Blair students won 1st place for the East Coast Division, as well as three 3rd place prizes, and ten honorable mentions, totaling $8,000 in prizes, with an additional $875 for the school. The 1st place film also won an additional $500 for the Fan Favorite Award.
This year, videos addressed the theme, “Choose a provision of the U.S. Constitution and create a video illustrating why it’s important to you.”
Blair winners are:
Hemakshi Gordy and Jansikwe Medina-Tayac won First Prize and Fan Favorite for their documentary, No Trespassing: Seeking Justice for Native Women. Their winning video will air on C-SPAN at 6:50 a.m. ET and throughout the day on April 21.
Uma Gupta, Mariko Yatsuhashi and Karis Danner-McDonald won Third Prize for their documentary, ALEC: The Key to Backroom Politics.
Anne Hicks, Sam Kulp and Cecelia Dworak won Third Prize for their documentary, Fifty One.
Isabella Hunt and Caroline Lanford won Third Prize for their documentary, 43920.
Kiera Lamb, Uma Fox and Kiah Beachler, eighth graders at Eastern Middle School, won First Prize in the Middle School division. They will share $3,000 for their documentary, Survival of the Veiled Face: The Constitutionality of Abortion. Their winning video will air on C-SPAN at 6:50 a.m. ET and throughout the day on April 18.
In addition, several of Blair’s CAP students earned an Honorable Mention.
- Lila Chafe, Bianca Martinez Penn and Zoe Abramson for their documentary, Fostering a Better Nation.
- Kie Donovan and Sarah Schiffgens for their documentary, The High Price of Health.
- Shifra Dayak, Mira Diamond-Berman and Zoe Nix for their documentary, Rising Waters, Rising States.
- Frances O’Connor, Fran Riley and Louis Rosenberg for their documentary, Dividing Maryland.
- Olivia Hardwick, Amelia Frey and Alexandra Marney-Bell for their documentary, Student Rights are Human Rights.
- Hailey Mitchell, Joe Byler and Alex Stoyanov-Roberts for their documentary, Gunning for Solutions: The Fight for Universal Background Checks.
- Ethan Park, Preston Beatty and Lucas Nieman for their documentary, Bump Stocks: Compromise and Failure.
- Young-Bin Lee, Jason Kaplan and George Ashford for their documentary, The Price of Free Speech.
- Marisa Williams, Alysse Swann and Vincent Baker for their documentary, Title IX: The Logic Behind The Law.
- Matthew Weinsheimer, Elias Chen and Max Casey-Bolanos for their documentary, Not So Free Speech The Dangerous Oppression of Free Expression
View all winning entries on the C-SPAN StudentCam website.