By Kristin Sommers (December 27, 2002)

The George Mason High School PTSA has chosen the winners for this year’s annual Reflections Writing and Art Contest. This year’s contest theme was "Signs of Courage," prompted in part by the aftermath of September 11, 2001.

The winner in the writing category is freshman Maya Cough-Schulze whose poem "Courage" used "metaphors of being lost in the woods to convey some of the feelings people have in difficult times," according to the author. Her poem will go on to the next level of competition. The runner-up in the writing category was Marion Wohlers.

In the photography category, the winner was junior Steven Gould who also won last year in the same category. Second place in the art category went to sophomore William Straub.
 

Freshman Maya Cough-Schulze's poem "Courage" won the PTSA-sponsored Reflections Writing Contest, the theme of which was "Signs of Courage." Maya's poem will now go on to the next level of competition. (Photo by Rabita Aziz)	This photo by junior Steven Gould won first place in the photography category of the Reflections Contest sponsored by the PTSA. The theme of the contest this year was "Signs of Courage."

This year there were 118 submissions in the writing contest, almost all by ninth and tenth graders in Ms. Melissa Raeder’s and Ms. Maggie Webster’s English classes.

Parent and PTSA member Ms. Connie Phelps chaired the Reflections Contest this year. Ms. Phelps, an art editor at the National Geographic Magazine, recruited her fellow editors from the magazine to judge the competition. "We carefully read all the entries and first came up with the top 60 entrants, then we narrowed it down to 15 before selecting the top entry and the second place finisher," said Phelps. She added, "The editors were impressed with the writing by the George Mason students and the editors’ job was a difficult one, given the quality of many of the essays, stories and poems."

The 13 other top students in the writing category received Meritorious Achievement certificates. They are: Ryan Hinely, Kaitlin Houter, Claire Smalley, Jasmine Bailey, Stuart Gregg, Nathan Ballou, Andy Tonken, Kayla Martinez, Devin Roden-Renolds, Emily Bowditch, Andrew Campanelli, Julie Dorsey, and Kathryn Allen.