Seniors
First Place: Ayanna Reed
Second Place: Misha James
Third Place: Rebeca Valescot
Honorable Mention:
Dorcas Amoah Blessing Eke Anthony Mikolinacz
Alyssa Owens John Tlatelpa Nallely Tovar
First Place: Color Combinations by Ayanna Reed (Grade 12)
When it comes to fashion, the color combination red, black, and white is my trendsetter. I can
wear a pair of black wide-leg trousers with a ruffled white blouse, a pair of red pumps, and a red tote bag. I will not need much for jewelry; just a simple pair of black earrings with a bright red bracelet does the job. Finally, I spice up my Afro with a vintage white hair accessory and I am confident in my style.
There is something about red, black, and white that catches my eye. I do not mind rocking the other colors, but this combination makes up who I am. I think color is a matter of preference. For me, red, black, and white is such a versatile combination. For instance, on one day, I strut my punk fashion by wearing black skinny jeans with red and white All Stars, and a black and red blouse with the logo “I LOVE VAMPIRES.”
The combination of red, black, and white reminds me of the fall and winter fashion colors featured in NYC Fashion Week 2010. These three colors represent dominance and masculinity in female clothing. In my opinion, red stands for power and love; black symbolizes strength and confidence, and white represents the soft feminine side of a woman.
On the other hand, the color combination of green and orange bothers me. Because both colors are bold, they compete with each other. Softening either color into a tint will not help this combination.
Green and orange are also the two worst school colors. A perfect example is Florida A+M University.
When I went to their website, I saw that it was filled with green and orange. It reminded me of a bag of Skittles.
Red, black, and white, however, just seem to work well together. They are similar to Lady GaGa’s music: versatile, confident, and trendsetting.
Second Place: Valentine’s Day Hate by Misha James (Grade 12)
Flowers, cards, candy. hugs and kisses. Just like Ashton Kutcher, I can’t stand it. Valentine’s Day is a wasted holiday. 365 days in a year, and you want to waste one on showing someone how much you love them? If you really love a person, you should express your love every day. Instead of a Day of Love, Ashton Kutcher thinks we should have an “I Can’t Stand You” Day instead.
The consequences of having an “I Can’t Stand You” Day would be really bad. People are negative to each other every day. Why provide a day for people to promote hate? Nothing but negative feedback would come from that one “holiday.” Besides emotional damage, some people can be harmed physically too. If I can’t stand a person that much, and it’s “I Can’t Stand You” Day, what’s stopping me from going upside that person’s head? I mean, after all, I’m just celebrating a holiday.
I believe Ashton Kutcher was just being funny. I don’t see a problem with expressing dislike, but not on such a wide scale as to make it a holiday. Picture that February 14: instead of heart-shaped candies, you get skulls and guns, with a matching card from your co-worker saying “I hope you bite the bullet.”
Having Valentine’s Day or “I Can’t Stand You” Day is all the same to me: POINTLESS! If you love or hate a person that much, tell them so on your own time. Don’t waste a day on the calendar—it’s not like we get the day off!
Third Place: Best Picture Oscar by Rebeca Valescot (Grade 12)
For the first time in recent memory, ten movies have been nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. These movies include Avatar, The Blind Side, and Precious. The Academy should vote based on a movie’s originality and audience appeal. My vote would go to Precious.
Best Picture should mean a movie that made you identify with it. Best Picture should also mean a movie that was so good that the audience members called up everyone they knew and suggested watching this movie. Most of all,
Best Picture should be original. Precious lives up to all these standards, especially originality. Although Avatar and
The Blind Side were really good, the stories have been done before. Avatar is a movie about alien creatures fighting with humans, as in Men in Black or Independence Day. The Blind Side is a biography of a professional football player who struggled to get to the top. It could be put in a category with Ali, the movie biography of Muhammed Ali. I
wouldn’t put Precious in a category because nothing else really compares to it.
In conclusion, the Academy should base their choice for Best Picture on audience appeal and originality. I vote for Precious, because it went above and beyond my expectations. It would be a surprise to me if anyone were to say that they had seen a movie like Precious before.
Writing of February:
Juniors
First Place: Monique Crockett
Second Place: Melissa Pryor
Third Place: Asad Richardson
Honorable Mention: Phylicia Green Mark Jenkins
Ashley Matos Ryan Pena Whitney Whitaker
First Place: Best Picture Oscar by Monique Crockett (Grade 11)
The Best Picture Oscar should go to a movie that has a message, and is something that every kind of person
can relate to. The message should be powerful, inspiring, and positive. Movies often win because they made millions of dollars or because they had a great action sequence. The movie that should win this year’s Best Picture Oscar is Precious.
Precious is a movie about a young girl who has been treated horribly and has been deprived of an education. I think everyone can relate to this movie, because almost everyone has been hurt by someone in some way. Precious may start off being about hurt but in the end, it is about forgiveness and doing what is right for yourself. Precious should win because it is a great story with a positive message. It may not be a movie for the whole family, but those of age can teach those younger about it. The movie may also have negativity, but it otherwise teaches valuable lessons on life and on education to young and old alike.
The movie that wins the Best Picture Oscar should have great actors and actresses. They shouldn’t just play characters on screen, but really become their characters for the audience. When a movie has actors and actresses that really pull an audience in to their story, that makes it a great movie. The actresses in Precious are
amazing. They become the women they portray.
Precious should win the Best Picture Oscar because it is a great movie with great meaning and a great cast.
Second Place: Color Combinations by Melissa Pryor (Grade 11)
A person’s style changes depending on where they live, the type of music they listen to, and the people they hang out with. Everyone has their own sense of style and their own sense of what “looks good”, but some colors just do not match, no matter what you do or how you wear them.
Right now, many of the styles I see involve neon colors. Hip-hop artists and listeners tend to follow these styles. You will see Li’l Wayne wearing bright red skinny jeans with a neon yellow shirt and orange sneakers. Does he believe he looks “fresh”? Truthfully, he looks as if he needs to be directing traffic. Bright colors can be very nice, but to dress from head to toes in multiple colors looks ridiculous.
Another thing I’m seeing today are models (who, by the way, look like they’re going to break) wearing dresses that look like construction bags with a frizzly trim. And these are considered “Couture,” and most cost in the high thousands. To me it seems as if today’s designers think that looking as if we’re drowning in our clothes is “in,” but it never will be.
I’m a very neutral person. I like grays, blacks, browns, and light colors. I never really get too crazy when I get dressed. Colors that look great together to me are brown and pink or blue. Black goes well with just about anything, and gray as well. When wearing a shirt or blouse that has a lot of different colors in it, I think you have to wear jeans or a solid neutral color bottom to tone out the colors so that you don’t look as if you just fell out of The Wizard of Oz.
To me, colors that do not match at all are brown, black, and navy blue. These three colors clash terribly. They are so close to each other that they don’t match well.
Every person’s style is different and that makes people unique. It all depends on your idea of what “looks good,” and that is why the fashion industry is so diverse-- because so many people have different thoughts on what “looks good.”
Third Place: Color Combinations by Asad Richardson (Grade 11)
To me, colors have their own tunes. Mixing colors creates melodies. Clashing many colors gives me a musical orchestra.
The melodies of color appear on paper in times of happiness, anger, sadness, the works. Those reflected melodies played in my mind every time I saw certain color combinations. Soon they created my dreams. When I went to bed sad or hurt, my dreams would take me to blurred streets where everything was black but outlined with blue and an ascetic gray finish. It made a melody that drove me partially insane! Violins quickly played with the sound of a farther-away piano playing at a slower tempo. The worst color combination was the one that represented fear. My nightmares were quick to comply with it. Fear was red and white, but mixed in quite an abstract way. At that point, it wasn’t a melody any longer. The drums were abused, played with apathy. The bass guitar sounded as it would in fast jazz. The violin sounded as if a cat had been left to stretch its paws on a chalkboard.
The one thing that could alleviate the trauma was the beautiful combination of pink and yellow. It changed the dream and brought peace to my soul. Its sound was a lightly played flute followed by the beautiful sirens of the piano. The melodic tune floated me to a heaven of the heart. Pink and yellow are not my favorite colors to look at, but they are by far at the top of my combination list. My favorite colors to look at are red and black.
Colors are like taste—everyone has a different perspective. Some colors are sweet to some, but bitter to others. The chemicals in one’s brain structure the differences in the ways people see colors.
To me, colors have their own tunes.
Writing of February:
Sophomores
First Place: Ariana Robinson
Second Place: Howard McDonald
Honorable Mention: Trudy-Ann Evans Marcus Harrison
Nyrie Jones Cassandra McCubbin Chervante Thomas
First Place: Valentine’s Day by Ariana Robinson (Grade 10)
Who was your valentine this year? Was it your lover or just a friend? For me, I don’t need a valentine on Valentine’s Day. It is one of those holidays where you express love to everyone. I believe it is also one of the best. Valentine’s Day is a day where I can be secretly admired or openly loved by my family and friends. In elementary school, I remember being bombarded with candy, teddy bears, and cards from all my classmates. I enjoyed giving out valentines to everyone as well as receiving all the pink, purple, and red gifts. Valentine’s Day is a day to show love in whatever way you want.
Ashton Kutcher said recently that he hates Valentine’s Day because he thinks every day should be a day of romance. He went on to say, “Then on Valentine’s Day you should get to tell whoever you hate that you cannot stand them. There would be one day of hating and 364 days of love.” I think there would be many consequences to his proposal. The idea of a day of hate instead of love is bizarre. In most situations, expressing dislike towards a person isn’t advisable. It can turn out to hurt a person’s feelings. For example, someone I thought was my friend could come out on the next “Valentine’s Day”
and tell me he or she can’t stand me. That would cut deep.
I think that when Ashton Kutcher said what he did, he was trying to be funny. Every day should be a day of love without it having to be a holiday. I don’t need all the fancy valentines or stuffed bears to express love. I know I tell someone I love them every day, from my mom to my best friend. I find it unnecessary to express hate or dislike even if for only a day.
In conclusion, Valentine’s Day is a day to let the people around me know that I love them. There may be this one day to express my love through flowers or candy, but I can express love every day without one day a year of hate.
Second Place: Dear LeBron James by Howard McDonald (Grade 10)
Dear LeBron James,
My name is Howard McDonald and I am a New Yorker. I am an avid basketball fan. With that said, it is safe to assume that I am a Knicks fan. As both of us may know, the summer of 2010 will be a hectic time for players who will become free agents. Along with you, there are many NBA superstars who have contracts expiring this summer. There are Amare.Stoudemire, Joe Johnson, Steve Nash, Ray Allen, Chris Bosh, and Dwayne Wade.
Right now, you are playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers, the team that boasts the best record in the NBA. As a fan of you and of the Knicks, I think you should consider playing for the Knicks. The Cavs seems to be a favorite to get to the NBA finals this year and many years to come. There would seem to be no legitimate reason for you to leave the team you’ve been playing for these past seven years.
We all know that the Knicks are not the same team they were in the mid to late ‘90s, but there are still good reasons to play for New York. Right now, you are twenty-five years old and you are already being compared to Michael Jordan. He was a great scorer. The Knicks are an offensive-oriented team, meaning that they can score big on a given night. That is thanks to their coach, Mike D’Antoni, who is known to be an offensive-oriented coach. So by coming to New York, you’d most likely fit right into their system. Another thing that may entice you to play for the Knicks is their location in New York City. You are the most marketed NBA player. You also happen to be one of the most marketed athletes in the world—and by coming to New York, things can only get better for you.
Money is not a problem, because the Knicks have plenty of money to spend on you.
I hope that this has helped you lean toward playing for the Knicks in 2010 and many years to come, But if you decide not to come to the New York Knicks, I still wish you luck and health for the rest of your NBA career.
Sincerely,
Howard McDonald
Writing of February:
Freshmen
First Place: Juhii Singh
Honorable Mention: Elise Morris Jessalyn Rodriguez
Trevarna Simpson Rudy Stephenson
First Place: Best Picture Oscar by Juhi Singh (Grade 9)
If I had the capability of choosing a movie that deserves the Oscar for Best Picture, without hesitation I would choose Avatar. Not only did it make it as the top box office draw, but it was an
amazing film to watch. In my opinion, Avatar is unlike any other movie I’ve ever seen, and it has
a unique story to it. This movie would definitely get my vote for several reasons.
I can honestly say that when I saw the advertisements for this film, I though it would be childish, but man, did it prove me wrong. Avatar was directed in a way that could attract all viewers. It was also made in 3-D, which helped make it more exciting for children. The visual effects were brilliant because they almost made me feel as if I was in the Avatar world called “Pandora.” Pandora was a place portrayed with nature, plants, trees, and animals everywhere. The person who designed Pandora made everything look eloquent and vivid, and really made it come to life.
Moreover, the message of this film is suitable for both children and adults. It teaches us to accept everyone and anything that comes in different forms and shapes. It also teaches us how to respect and value everything we have. Most of all, it gives us the message of keeping peace in the world. This movie puts you back into reality by making you realize how much destruction and havoc has been caused, and we humans are the ones to blame. The Na’vi view their trees, plants, and animals as home, something they share close bonds with. However, in reality, we take these things for our advantage and forget their value in themselves.
Overall, I believe James Cameron, the director and writer of this movie, did a magnificent job.
It may have taken him a long time to make this film, but it was well worth it. It had a very deep meaning. The members of the Academy should pay attention not only to how popular it has become, but to its message as well.