Centreville Area Students Advance in National PTA Competition

What’s in the Spotlight? PTA Reflections Program

Accomplishment: Outstanding entries from local Parent Teacher Association (PTA) Reflections programs have been selected to advance to the county level. Winning entries, handpicked by members of each public school’s PTA, will be judged by the Fairfax County Council of PTAs in the coming weeks and may potentially move on to the district, state and national levels of the competition. 

Key to Success: Reflections is a student achievement and recognition program sponsored annually by the National PTA. It invites all students in preschool through grade 12 to craft original artwork that reflects a given theme. This year’s theme is “Diversity Means…” 

The competition is divided into six submission categories: Dance Choreography, Film Production, Literature, Musical Composition, Photography and Visual Arts. Reflections is further separated into four grade divisions. Students may submit entries in multiple artistic categories.  

For over 40 years the PTA Reflections program has worked to supplement students’ music and arts education and discover the depth of their creativity. Beth Tweddle, the Reflections Parent Volunteer Chair at both and , said, “The program’s strengths reside wholly with its focus on the different art forms.”  

“Schools can tie the effort into different school classes,” Tweddle added. For example, Scott Phillips, a former English teacher and current principal at Stone Middle, has made it a point the last two years to integrate the Reflections program into his students’ English and art classes.  

“We asked our English teachers to discuss the topic as a writing prompt, and then encourage writing in either a journal entry or in-class assignment, or to use as an extension activity for outside of class,” Phillips said, adding that this also gives students an extra opportunity to practice the drafting, revising and rewriting steps of the writing process.

Phillips has found that incorporating the Reflections program into the curriculum has not only enhanced his students’ creative education, but also resulted in increased participation in the program itself. In past years, the Stone PTA would receive as few as three student entries.

“The past two years doing it this way we have had closer to 30-35 great entries, and so have encouraged much broader participation in a very worthy program,” Phillips said.  

First place winners from each school in each art and grade category move on to the county and/or district level.  

The following students won their school’s competition in the listed categories and will advance to the Fairfax County level.  

•   Grace Kim (Literature & Visual Arts, Intermediate)
•   Avi Lamba (Photography, Intermediate)
•   Shiv Lamba (Dance Choreography, Intermediate)
•   Amy Luo (Photography & Visual Arts, Primary)
•   Margaret Luo (Film Production, Intermediate)
•   Rachana Subbanna (Visual Arts, Middle)
•   Madison Vanderlip (Photography, Middle) 

•   Talon Jenks (Photography, Senior)
•   Jeremiah Ok (Visual Arts, Senior)
•   Trisha Sinha (Literature, Senior) 

•   Audrey Eng (Photography, Primary)
•   Medha Gaddam (Music, Primary)
•   Pooja Gupta (Film Production, Middle)
•   Hannah L. Kim (Visual Arts, Middle)
•   Claire Lee (Visual Arts, Primary)
• Kaitlyn S. Lee (Literature, Primary)
• Adarsh Mohanraju (Literature, Intermediate)
• Kaitlin Phan (Film Production, Photography & Visual Arts, Intermediate) 

• Diego Cromwell (Visual Arts, Intermediate)
• Anna Kaplan (Dance Choreography, Primary)
• Abigail Molloy (Visual Arts, Primary)
• Dianna Philipps (Literature, Intermediate)
• Nora Talley (Photography, Intermediate) 

• Rachael Gerlitz (Photography & Visual Arts, Middle)
• Alisa McGuire (Visual Arts, Intermediate)
• Amy Reuter (Literature, Intermediate)
• Camryn Sonnenfeld (Photography, Primary)
• Madison Stalfort (Photography, Intermediate)
• Nicole Vega (Literature & Visual Arts, Primary) 

• Gerardo Abaunza (Photography, Middle)
• Tanishi Dasuupta (Visual Arts, Primary)
• Gannon LaCroix (Musical Composition, Middle)
• Erin Maltese (Literature, Middle)
• Tyler Roberts (Literature, Intermediate)
• Iker Rodriguez (Photography, Intermediate)
• Gunalan Senthil (Visual Arts, Intermediate)
• Makiah Smoot (Musical Composition, Intermediate)
• Charles Vera (Visual Arts, Middle) 

• Hira Ikram (Literature, Middle)
• Daniel Park (Visual Arts, Middle)
• Reilly Tweddle (Film Production, Middle)
• Whitmore Young IV (Photography, Middle)

• Caroline Joseph (Literature, Intermediate)
• Yuna Lee (Visual Arts, Intermediate)
• Morgan Orlosky (Photography, Intermediate)
• Theodore Schroder (Visual Arts, Primary)
• Tyler Schroder (Film Production, Intermediate)

• Cameron Sutton (Literature, Intermediate)
• William Sutton (Literature, Middle)
• Maddie Thomas (Visual Arts, Intermediate) 

• Masie Chong (Photography, Senior)
• Marisa Grayson (Literature, Senior)
• Sahaja Yerramsetti (Visual Arts, Senior)

Key

Primary: preschool-grade 2

Intermediate: grades 3-5

Middle: grades 6-8

Senior: grades 9-12