Archive for month: March, 2016

Coe-Brown Northwood Academy is pleased to announce that senior Julie Souryavong from Northwood and freshman Brian Downer of Strafford were recognized in the 93rd annual Scholastic Art & Writing Awards competition.  Julie received a silver medal for her photograph entitled Paper Adventures: A Self-Portrait. This portrait was constructed by first capturing a beautiful sunset over a Goose Pond.  She then constructed paper boats and paper cranes.  Photographing each of these from the same perspective as the original sunset.  Finally she photographed herself in a confident pose and pull all the images seamlessly into one photograph.

Brian also received a silver medal for his essay entitled #PeaceforParis: Notes on the Realization of Personal Hypocrisy, which begins “If you have ever been afraid of yourself, perhaps you will understand. Not necessarily in a physical sense, not in the way that you’re afraid of beating yourself up, but in a different way. When you’re afraid of your own hypocrisy, afraid of your own prejudices, unsure of your own moral standings. You tell yourself you feel one way, and yet, with an increasing sense of dread, you notice yourself acting the other way on a daily basis…”

Three Hundred twenty thousand submissions from the across the country were received this year and just 2400 were recognized nationally.  Receiving silver medals in the competition places these talented students in the top one percent of all submissions nationally. Julie and Brian join the ranks of many notable artists and writers from this past century including Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, Joyce Carol Oates, Sylvia Plath, Paul Newman, Robert Redford and the renowned filmmaker Ken Burns who will receive the program’s Alumni Achievement Award this year, as well many, many other famous talented writers and artists. Congratulations to Julie and Brian for this national honor.