Every year, the school has an annual PTA reflections contest to allow students to express their artistic abilities in several categories. The competition begins at the school level, with students able to advance to state and for some, a national contest. The school had more than 200 entries, and six were chosen for state (Taylor Carty, Elizabeth Hannah, Whitney Hyde, Carly Johnson, Christine MacQuilkan, and Sabrina Schwab) with judging for national finalists taking place on March 1.

“The PTA Reflections Program is a national contest that’s purpose is to support student success and serve as a valuable tool for building strong partnerships in our community,” PTA community chair of Arts and Communication Leah Edwards said. “Studies show that the longer the arts are studied, the higher the SAT scores. Any student is eligible to enter the Reflections Contest, but this year at Lovejoy, several teacher made it an assignment for their classes so we had great participation.”

Students from grades K-12 can compete, and the theme this year was ‘The World Would Be A Better Place if…’. The topic made students think about the problems and conflicts in the world today.

“I thought that this year’s theme was an extremely powerful topic,” junior Elizabeth Hannah said. “This broad theme gave me plenty of room to answer in whichever way I pleased.”

Some students were shocked that their work advanced to state.

“After I heard that my piece had made it to state, I was absolutely shocked,” Hannah said. “I had never considered this even being a possibility, but it happened. Now I still am in a state of disbelief, but I feel accomplished for doing that well. It is an amazing feeling having my voice heard through my dancing, especially about a topic that I have a strong passion for.”

Students can compete in several categories such as dance choreography, film production, literature, musical composition, photography and visual arts.

“In my case, I danced to a song called “The Impossible Dream”, which became the title of my piece,” Hannah said. “Basically, the song is about following your dreams even if they seem impossible to achieve. This to me was so awesome because it the girl who sang my song was about ten years old and already had an incredibly mature voice. Therefore, the world would be a better place if we all just followed our dreams no matter how difficult it may be to get there.”