10th-grader wins arts prize
W. Feliciana High to receive $6,000 from wetlands group
For her depiction of a white pelican through the use of natural and recycled material, Brittany Stagg, 15, won her school $6,000 for supplies through America’s Wetland Foundation.
Stagg, a 10th-grader at West Feliciana High School, was one of nine students in the state awarded $5,000 for either an essay, photo or art that depicts wetland issues. In addition, Stagg was named the overall winner in the art competition, so she earned an additional $1,000 for her school.
“I was surprised because I didn’t understand at first,” she said Thursday when it was announced over the school intercom that she had won. “This is my first year of taking art at school.”
Her art teacher, Killian Williams, said he submitted Stagg’s work, along with a number of other student works, to the contest through America’s Wetland Foundation and found out she won last week. It’s been hard to not say anything until the official announcement Thursday, he said.
Williams said Stagg was struggling with the project and had said she didn’t think she would win.
“She’s going to be stunned,” he said earlier Thursday before the announcement was made. “I’m really excited about it.”
School Principal Jim Carroll agreed.
“We’re very proud,” he said, adding that he got to see all the work before it was submitted to the contest and called the students’ work impressive.
As far as the money is concerned, Williams said he and the principal and others still need to sit down and talk about what should be purchased. However, his classes have already expressed their opinion, he said.
“I asked if we win, what would you do?” he said.
The answer was the students would like the money to go toward cameras and other equipment so students could make a video about wetlands, he said.
The contest was run through the America’s Wetland Foundation, a nonprofit group with a mission to help raise awareness about coastal Louisiana land loss. Students were asked to answer the questions of how Louisiana can adapt to coastal land loss and why should the coastal wetlands be saved, according to a news release from the foundation.
In addition to having the winners announced on World Wetlands Day on Thursday, the event also marks the start of the organization’s 10th year in existence.
“The success of the contest’s purpose is illustrated by the closing lines of the overall winning essay, written by sixth-grader Justin Hugger, 11, of Metairie. He wrote, “It is a choice to save the wetlands. Let’s all make a personal decision to do this,” Val Marmillion, the foundation’s managing director, said in a news release.
The judges for the contest were Martine Chaisson, owner of The Martine Chaisson Gallery of Fine Art, New Orleans; photographer Bevil Knapp, co-author of the photo publication “America’s WETLAND: Louisiana’s Vanishing Coast,” Covington; Jean May-Brett of the Louisiana Science Teachers Association and the State Department of Education, Baton Rouge; Sidney Coffee, senior adviser to the foundation, Baton Rouge; and Marmillion.