MacArthur student wins national theme search contest

Jason Yevin, a sophomore from General Douglas MacArthur High School in the Levittown Public Schools, was recently selected as the 2022-2023 PTA Reflections Theme Search Contest winner. His phrase “Show Your Voice!” will be the next National PTA Reflections theme that will inspire student creativity in grades K-12 across the country. Yevin will also receive $100 from the National PTA as the contest winner.

Each year, the National PTA selects one theme idea for its National PTA Reflections Contest. The PTA Reflections Contest challenges students from across the United States to create original works of art while reflecting on a specific theme. Students have the opportunity to submit art in the areas of dance choreography, film production, literature, music composition, photography and visual arts.

Yevin was encouraged by his ceramics teacher Deja Gomes-Vance, to submit his theme idea into the 2022-2023 Reflections Theme Search Contest. During class, Ms. Gomes-Vance conducted a brainstorming session as part of the creative process and focused on past theme search winners. Her students thought about something significant that happened in the past year to help them formulate a possible theme for the next PTA Reflections Contest. Yevin thought of the “Show Your Voice!” phrase after reflecting on the Black Lives Matter protests and mask wearing during 2020.

Gomes-Vance has her art students create projects for the National PTA Reflections Contest each year and she is thrilled that her own student’s idea will be the theme that students will follow in 2022-2023. 

“I think it’s great,” she said. “Jason is a wonderful student and this recognition could not have happened to a better kid.”

—Brian Stieglitz