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News from the Hill WMA lands 9 awards at statewide art competition
▲ Among nine WMA students honored with 2016 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards were (left to right): Front row, Wayne Wu ’16, Elias Skillings ’17, Insun Kim ’18 and Wilasinee “Bee” Daloonpet ’16. Top row, SungMin “Steve” Chu ’16, Drew Morrision ’16 and Bingchen “Sam” Wang ’16.
Colin O’Brien ’16 honored for work at Harvard Model Congress It takes talent and a strong work ethic to stand out among 1,500 peers. When it comes to politics, Wilbraham & Monson Academy’s Colin O’Brien ’16 has plenty of both qualities. At the closing ceremonies of the 31st session of Harvard Model Congress, Colin received an Award of Excellence, which included being honored with a gavel. The event was held at the Sheraton Boston Hotel Feb. 18–21. Colin represented Luke Messer, a Republican from Indiana’s 6th District, on the United States House of Representatives Financial Committee. He wrote legislation on Cuban-United States relations, cryptocurrency relations and vaccine injury compensation. He enjoyed the fast pace of the committee work, which included 28 hours in session during a four-day period. “It’s good to be recognized,” Colin said. “A lot of us put in a lot of work. We did this every day after school for 2–3 months and it’s a good feeling to put all of that knowledge to work and work with others and be rewarded for the effort and collaboration.”
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Wilbraham & Monson Academy might be the Global and art school. The 2016 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards honored nine students from the Academy Jan. 28. SungMin “Steve” Chu ’16, Drew Morrison ’16, Muyi “Jennifer” Zhao ’16, Wilasinee “Bee” Daloonpet ’16, Insun Kim ’18, Celina Rivernider ’19, Elias Skillings ’17, Bingchen “Sam” Wang ’16 and Wayne Wu ’16 were recognized by the statewide competition. “It shows the students are taking visual arts seriously, and they see this as a path toward college and going beyond to professional careers that it’s not just an activity to do on
the side to supplement academics,” WMA Fine & Performing Arts Department Chair Paul Bloomfield said. “This is actually integral for a fair number of students.” For their gold key recognition, Steve and Drew advanced to the regional competition. Steve earned three gold keys and an honorable mention, with his gold key total being more than any WMA student in recent history. “You won’t find many students from any school who earned three gold keys,” Mr. Bloomfield said.