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PPHS snaps up statewide photography awards
By BILLIE S. NOAKES
Article published on Thursday, May 22, 2008 |
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![[Image]](/content_images/052208_par-02.jpg) |
| Photo by BILLIE S. NOAKES |
| From left are Karin Hentschke, PPHS photography program adviser, and photo contest winners Rebecca Rudd, third place, statewide; Katie Wilcox, first place, statewide. |
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PINELLAS PARK – Pinellas Park High School swept the statewide photography competition sponsored by Florida SkillsUSA, putting a lock on the contest’s top three awards for the second consecutive year.
First place honors statewide went to junior Katie Wilcox, daughter of Dudley and Loretta Wilcox.
Her accomplishment earns her a berth at the national competition to be held June 23 to 27 in Kansas City, Mo.
Samantha Robertson and Rebecca Rudd placed second and third, respectively.
SkillsUSA is the vocational and technical component of high school education, and it sponsors state and national competitions in a wide range of skills, including electrical wiring, culinary arts, crime scene investigation, plumbing, customer service, broadcasting, and more.
“We were pretty excited,” said Karin Hentschke, adviser for the PPHS photography program. “We have more than a hundred talented photographers in this program, and I knew several of my students had a good shot at placing in this competition. To take first, second, and third place – two years in a row – was gratifying.”
“We were pretty excited when Rebecca placed third,” Katie said, recalling the awards ceremony held April 30 at the Manatee Civic Center. “Then when my friend Samantha got second place, I freaked out. Samantha kept telling me, ‘That means you won! You won!’ but I’d been looking at the other entries, and I didn’t know. They were really good. When they called my name, I really freaked out.”
Katie is in her third year with Hentschke’s photography class, and said she enjoys learning about life as well as photography from her instructor.
“Ms. Hentschke is amazing,” Katie Wilcox said. “She really cares about us, enough to put the cameras away and give us lectures about things that matter in the world, things like being courteous to people, and how to act like a professional.”
“It’s been a great program for Katie,” agreed Katie’s mom, Loretta. “Ms. Hentschke teaches the program like it’s a profession, not just a hobby.”
“I originally wanted to be a movie director, and my mom told me I needed to understand everything about photography, starting with still photography,” Katie Wilcox said.
It wasn’t long before her camera work developed into a passion, and she now looks forward to a career as a photojournalist.
To celebrate the student photographers’ accomplishment and to help raise the funds to cover Katie’s trip to the national convention, PPHS hosted its second annual Photo Gallery on Thursday, May 15, featuring work by many of the students enrolled in the photography program. The event also included student-led tours of the photography lab.
An auction of the students’ photographic works pushed the evening’s fund-raising to $372, and more than one bidding war developed over works on the block.
Top dollar came thanks to Kasey Bentley, a sophomore who is in her second year in Hentschke’s photography program.
Her photo of a sunset on Madeira Beach brought in $30 for the fund to “Send Katie to Kansas City.”
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Article published on Thursday, May 22, 2008
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