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Arts & Entertainment

Portola Boy, 6, Takes Literary Prize

PTA arts program encourages and rewards creative achievement.

San Bruno's newest literary prize winner has two reasons to celebrate: Julien Bancroft-Connors not only took first place for literature in the K-2 level in a districtwide venerable arts competition organized by PTAs in the area. He just turned six.

His winning entry for the District 17 PTA Reflections program, a poem about playing with Legos, "took me about one minute" to write, he said.

"He is over-the-moon excited," said his mother, Jesai Bancroft-Connors. "The beauty of imagination is encapsulated in that poem."

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students contributed more than 60 works to the , which was held at the school and encouraged creativity and achievement and was part of an effort to promote community awareness on the importance of arts education in schools. This is the first year Portola has taken part.

This year’s theme—as always, voted upon by students—was “Together We Can.”

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After Portola's competition in December, the first place entries moved on to the district competition in January, which drew 550 entries from schools throughout San Mateo County. With Bancroft-Connors' entry, Portola has now springboarded from the district to the state level competition. CalPTA announces the statewide winners in mid-March.

More than 10 million students have contributed works in film production, painting, literature, photography, music and dance choreography since National PTA board member Mary Lou Anderson launched Reflections in 1969.

When Contessa Messiana participated in Reflections when she was younger, the theme was “Love Is…” Today, she oversees the district level competition.

“I can’t even imagine what it’s like to judge,” she said. “The work is just amazing.”

PTAs have watched in alarm as budget cutbacks decimated arts education, she said.

“In school, the arts are still being whittled away," Messiana said. "We are trying to keep the arts alive.”

The competition is both joyous and rigorous: High school students who compete in musical competition, for instance, must hand chart their work in music notation as well as perform it.

Program officials encourage schools to laud the young artists at all junctures of the competition with awards, assemblies and practical expressions of recognition, such as art supplies, gift certificates, symphony tickets and other tangibles that encourage future participation in the arts.

All first place entries from the competition will be displayed at the 17th District PTA Founder's Day luncheon at 11am Feb. 15 at Dominic's Oyster Point in South San Francisco.

Art lovers can view copies of all of the Portola entries on the school’s online gallery at www.artsonia.com.

Artist workshops took place before the recent event. Judges based scores on interpretation of the theme, artistic merit and creativity and mastery of the medium.  

Some students, like Julien, contributed work in multiple categories.

He offered some advice to budding writers who may enter Reflections in years to come: “Just think of the words, and if you don’t know how to write yet, tell your parents to write them down. If you can write, just get them down."

The following Portola students also placed in the districtwide competition: Felix Kim, in the primary visual arts category, and Amanda Hall, in the junior/middle visual arts category. Julien also received third place for his primary photography entry.

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