APS Students Showcase Their Talents in Winter Card Contest

Softly they fall, where do they go?  

Cover the ground, without a sound

(Gentle snowflakes)

Fall from the sky, before your eyes

(It’s so thrilling)

Blankets of white, brighten the night

                          Lyrics from the song Purple Snowflakes , Marvin Gaye

It’s so thrilling to share with you the winners of our 2018 Winter Card contest! The student winners and their families will be recognized at our upcoming Board of Education meeting on Monday, December 3 at 6 p.m. at the Center for Learning and Leadership (CLL) at 130 Trinity Avenue SW. And, the winning designs along with several of the entries are on display in the lobby of CLL from now through the end of the calendar year.

We had over 200 students (from elementary school through high school) submit winter card designs for this year’s competition from every cluster in APS (Carver, Douglass, Grady, Jackson, Mays, North Atlanta, South Atlanta, Therrell, and Washington). PLUS, students from Crim Open Campus, BEST Academy, and Coretta Scott King Young Women’s Leadership Academy submitted as well (Yay!).

It was so inspiring to look at the world through our students’ eyes and take in the vast array of creativity reflected in their artwork. The Winter Card contest is open to all APS students and the entries are judged blindly, without knowledge of student names, student grade levels, teacher names, or schools. We evaluate the designs using multiple criteria,including overall concept, execution, and integration of the APS brand.

Needless to say, there is beauty in every one of the designs submitted and it was hard to pick just a few winners, especially when every one of our students is a winner in my book. After reviewing all of the cards multiple times, we identified first, second and third place winners, and we selected a fourth card that deserved honorable mention this year.

Drum roll, please! Here are the winners of our 2018 Winter Card contest!


First place goes to Raylen Smith, a 12th grader at South Atlanta High School for this beautiful winter rendition. 

Second place goes to Ben Aspinwall, a 10th grader at North Atlanta High School for this gorgeous globe.

Our third place winner actually goes to four Brandon Elementary School students who created a combined layout featuring a variety of owls. Those students are Addie Patton, a 3rd grader, Julia Burnette, a 5th grader, Milana Sukhinina, a 4th grader, and Jiaying Hou, a 5th grader.

Eve Harclerode, a 9th grader at North Atlanta won honorable mention this year for these lovely mugs.

These designs are amazing!

Now, for the most exciting part. We’ve printed a number of the winning winter cards to share with you — our families, staff and community members — in celebration of our students’ talents.

Because we’re not able to send a printed copy of these cards to everyone, I’m sharing them here with you, on my blog, for everyone to enjoy.

I want to thank all of our talented students who participated in this year’s contest, and I also want to thank all of our art teachers throughout the District, especially the art teachers of the students who won — Tokie Taylor of South Atlanta, Kim Landers of North Atlanta, Jennie Dumont of Brandon Elementary School and Rachael Sturgess of North Atlanta.

A special thank you to Bill Goodman, our Director of Multimedia Design, Charlotte Napper, our Graphic Designer, and Dr. Sara Womack, our Fine and Performing Arts Coordinator, for spearheading this annual contest with me and for their guidance throughout the selection process.

Finally, for additional warming of your heart for the season…a special extra gift for you. I loved this one too! A’Milliyna Turner, a 4th grader at Usher-Collins Heights Elementary School designed it. Great job A’Milliyna, and a special thanks to her art teacher Carol Washburn!

Congratulations to all of our 2018 Winter Card contest winners on a job well done!

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