2018 Shooting Stars Finalists Announced
ARTS COUNCIL OF JOHNSON COUNTY
ANNOUNCES 2018 SHOOTING STARS FINALISTS
OVERLAND PARK, KS – February 6, 2018 – The Arts Council of Johnson County (ACJC) announces 115 finalists have been nominated for the 2018 Shooting Stars Awards. The Shooting Stars Program honors Johnson County high school students for achievement in the literary, performing and visual arts through recognition and college scholarships. Shooting Stars award recipients will be announced at the 21st annual Shooting Stars Gala at Johnson County Community College on Sunday, March 25, 2018.
“Twenty-one years ago (1997), the Shooting Stars recognition program was created to celebrate young Johnson County artists for their artistic excellence in high school. The vision came from former ACJC chairman Bob Endres.” said Sarah VanLanduyt, ACJC Executive Director. “Bob’s vision was to recognize the best of the best high school artists, with nominations coming from their high school Arts teachers.”
At the Shooting Stars Gala, nine first-place scholarships of $1,400 each and nine second-place scholarships of $700 each will be awarded to the top two finalists in each artistic category. Nine teacher honorariums of $350 will be given to teachers that nominated the top student in each category. The program is supported by Johnson County and area foundations, corporations and individual donors. Since starting 21 years ago, the Shooting Stars program has awarded more than $200,000 in college scholarships and almost $65,000 in teacher honorariums.
Each year, Shooting Stars recognizes more than 100 students that demonstrate excellence in nine categories of literary, performing and visual arts. Arts teachers from Johnson County schools nominate the students for Shooting Stars. Teachers at schools outside of Johnson County also may nominate students that live in Johnson County.
To participate in Shooting Stars, students nominated must meet these criteria:
> be in the 12th grade and will graduate in the spring;
> live in Johnson County, Kansas;
> be nominated by an Arts teacher from their high school, and submit an application.
Nominations were accepted from Arts teachers between October 24 – November 3, 2017.
Applications were accepted from students from October 24 – November 6, 2017.
After being selected as a finalist, the high school seniors audition or submit a portfolio of work for review by independent judges in these nine categories. A list of all finalists’ names, schools and nominating teacher is included at end.
> Literature (11 finalists)
> Photography (12 finalists)
> Production and Design (7 finalists)
> Strings (7 finalists)
> Theatre Performance (19 finalists)
> Three-Dimensional Art (8 finalists)
> Two-Dimensional Art (20 finalists)
> Voice Classical (17 finalists)
> Winds and Percussion (14 finalists)
“Shooting Stars celebrates the Arts by acknowledging the critical role the Arts play in our current and future workforce,” said Brian Williams, President, ACJC Board of Directors. “It’s critically important that we recognize that students with skills in the Arts bring creativity, ingenuity, and perspective to science, technology, engineering and math careers and their Arts skills will prepare them well for many jobs that are continuing to develop in the 21st century. Many Shooting Stars program finalists plan to pursue studies and careers in the Arts. Even if that changes over time and these budding artists pursue other paths, their participation in the Arts makes them uniquely qualified to contribute to wide variety of future endeavors,” Williams added.
“Many Shooting Stars Finalists excel in science, technology, engineering, arts and math,” added Sarah VanLanduyt, Arts Council of Johnson County Executive Director. “It’s not uncommon for students to major in a STEM field, yet continue to pursue their art in college and beyond. The judges say that selecting the scholarship recipients is a challenging task because of the high-caliber of talent demonstrated by each of the nominees.”
The Shooting Stars Gala will be on Sunday, March 25, 2018 from 3:00 to 6:00 pm at Johnson County Community College. From 3:00-4:00 pm, Shooting Stars finalists and guests will attend a reception and exhibition opening at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art.
During the reception, guests may see the finalists’ projects in the Photography, Three-Dimensional and Two-Dimensional Art on display at the Nerman Museum. Guests also may watch a photo/video montage (DVD) of the Performing Arts auditions and Literary Arts portfolio readings. The Awards Ceremony will be held in Yardley Hall from 4:15 – 5:30 pm; a celebration reception follows in the Carlsen Center lobby. Individual tickets to the Gala are $50 and are available online at artsjoco.org/shooting-stars or by calling 913-894-2720. Proceeds from the event help to underwrite the 18 college scholarships awarded each year.
2018 Shooting Stars Finalists
Literature (prose/poetry)
Bailey Burgard, Shawnee Mission North HS
David Edmonds, Rockhurst HS
Micah Faulds, De Soto HS
Isabella Kloster, Shawnee Mission East HS
Alice Kogo, Olathe North HS
Ayush Pandit, Blue Valley North HS
Tara Phillips, Shawnee Mission South HS
Kali Ray, Olathe South HS
Mikayla Rico, Saint James Academy
Mattie Schoenfeld, Maranatha Academy
Lizzie Skidmore, Blue Valley HS
Photography
Kylie Bergdall, Olathe East HS
Ethan Doskey, Barstow HS
Robert Gehring, Blue Valley North HS
Morgan Hickman, Notre Dame de Sion HS
Kira Higgins, Blue Valley Southwest HS
Alexandra Moyer, Blue Valley West HS
Gavin Mullin, Blue Valley Northwest HS
Minh Nguyen, Rockhurst HS
Julia Rosher, Pembroke Hill US
Faith Smith, De Soto HS
Cody West, Olathe North HS
Melanie White, Blue Valley HS
Production & Design
Sam Carlson, De Soto HS
Madison Cole, Shawnee Mission North HS
Alexa Edmonds, Olathe North HS
Kara McCormick, Gardner-Edgerton HS
Harper Mundy, Shawnee Mission East HS
Devin Palmer, Shawnee Mission South HS
Aaliyah Pierce, Olathe South HS
Strings
Emilie Giles, Olathe South HS
Kenton Huff, Olathe Northwest HS
Bri Jantz, Shawnee Mission East HS
Angela Jiang, Blue Valley HS
Shulammite Lim, Olathe North HS
Tiffany Pan, Blue Valley Southwest HS
Emma Van Lieshout, Blue Valley North HS
Theatre Performance
Hannah Collette, Gardner-Edgerton HS
Brayden Dannecker, Rockhurst HS
Mandy Dulny, Shawnee Mission Northwest HS
Kennedy Forshey, De Soto HS
Logan Frye, Olathe Northwest HS
Maggie Gallaway, Blue Valley Southwest HS
Camryn Hampton, Shawnee Mission West HS
Abigail Hindle, Shawnee Mission South HS
Lauryn Hurley, Mill Valley HS
Griffin Leander, Blue Valley Northwest HS
Alex Leondedis, Blue Valley West HS
Claire L’Esperance, Saint Thomas Aquinas HS
KayLee Mitchell, Spring Hill HS
Megan Secrest, Olathe South HS
Adyson Shaw, Blue Valley HS
Allyson Tinker, Olathe North HS
Mia Valentine, Olathe East HS
Amara Webb, Blue Valley North HS
Savanna Worthington, Shawnee Mission East HS
Three-Dimensional Art
Chloe Akin, Gardner-Edgerton HS
Helene Bechtel, Blue Valley Southwest HS
Joseph Hatzfeld, Olathe Northwest HS
Kayla Henrie, Shawnee Mission West HS
William Kline, Shawnee Mission East HS
Suhyun Park, Notre Dame de Sion HS
Raul Sanchez, De Soto HS
Emily Turner, Olathe South HS
Two-Dimensional Art
Madison Beck, Olathe Northwest HS
Maya Colvin, Shawnee Mission North HS
Sydney Crawford, Notre Dame de Sion HS
Marion Farnet, Saint James Academy
Gabrielle Gillespie, Blue Valley Northwest HS
Katie Jones, Olathe South HS
Te’rasya Khalifah, Olathe East HS
NaYoung Kwon, Barstow HS
Jane Markley, Pembroke Hill US
Kinsey McCormick, Gardner-Edgerton HS
Marissa Olin, Mill Valley HS
Lilian Oliver, Shawnee Mission Northwest HS
Cormac Palmer, Blue Valley North HS
Gabrielle Perdomo, Shawnee Mission East HS
Brooke Portz, De Soto HS
Darby Rolf, Blue Valley Southwest HS
Taylor Rowan, Spring Hill HS
Ava Tronoski, Blue Valley West HS
Sophia Wanamaker, Saint Thomas Aquinas HS
Kaitlin Yu, Blue Valley HS
Voice Classical
Megan Averill, Olathe Northwest HS
Mackenzie Beeton, Blue Valley Southwest HS
Brahm Berry, Shawnee Mission North HS
Natalie Crane, Olathe North HS
Claire Deschamp, Saint Thomas Aquinas HS
Josie Hansen, Blue Valley West HS
McKenna Harvey, Mill Valley HS
Keirstyn Mascareno, De Soto HS
Matthew Robison, Shawnee Mission Northwest HS
Melissa Rosenthal, Barstow HS
Jake Scheuler, Rockhurst HS
Olivia Schultz, Gardner-Edgerton HS
Abbey Sensenich, Blue Valley North HS
Anna Synek, Blue Valley HS
Brittany Taylor, Olathe South HS
Jacob Ross Thomas, Olathe East HS
Alexandra Tyler, Shawnee Mission West HS
Winds & Percussion
Allison Bixler, Olathe North HS
Jared Carlton, De Soto HS
Emily Copeland, Olathe Northwest HS
Tom Fabing, Gardner-Edgerton HS
Sophia Hollman, Shawnee Mission Northwest HS
Alex Jashinski, Blue Valley West HS
Rose Muldoon, Blue Valley North HS
Zakary Oster, Maranatha Academy
Crystal Rathburn, Blue Valley Southwest HS
Alex Reeves, Olathe East HS
Noelle Schlenk, Olathe South HS
Maria Schmeer, Saint Thomas Aquinas HS
Caroline Schmidt, Shawnee Mission West HS
Brandon Wells, Blue Valley Northwest HS
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