Three members of the Jewish community — Ali Felman, Jessica Glueck and Slater Sousley — were among the 18 winners of the 2013 Arts Council of Johnson County Shooting Stars Scholarships. These scholarships were presented April 7 at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art and Yardley Hall at Johnson County Community College.
The Shooting Stars Recognition, Scholarship & Awards Program celebrates young artists and arts educators for their artistic achievements with college scholarships, awards and honorariums. Shooting Stars is one of the few programs in the community to honor and recognize Johnson County high school seniors and their arts educators for artistic excellence in the visual, performing and literary arts. Since its creation in 1997, the Shooting Stars Program has recognized almost 1,000 students and awarded more than $200,000 in college scholarships, and almost $65,000 in teacher honorariums.
To become a Shooting Stars finalist, students must be residents of Johnson County and a high school graduating senior. Nominated by their high school arts teachers, finalists audition or submit a portfolio of work for review by independent judges in one of the following categories: literature, strings, winds and percussion, voice classical, theater performance, production and design, 2-D visual art, 3-D visual art and photography.
Using the scholarship guidelines and judging criteria, judges then select a first place ($1,400) and second place ($700) scholarship recipient. Nominating teachers of the first-place scholarship recipient receive a $350 award. The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art also exhibits one piece from each of the 2-dimensional, 3-dimensional, and photography Finalists. The student exhibition is on display at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art through the end of April.
Slater Sousley is the first-place scholarship recipient from Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy in the category of two-dimensional visual art. He was nominated by Kelly Reichman, who was one of nine teachers that evening who was awarded a teacher honorarium. This is actually the third time a HBHA student has won this award under Reichman’s tutelage.
In the literature category, Jessica Glueck of Blue Valley North was the first-place scholarship recipient. Shawnee Mission East’s Ali Felman was the first place scholarship recipient in the strings category.
In January, 103 high school seniors were nominated as Shooting Stars finalists. Other students in the Jewish community who were nominated include Daria LeGrand, Barstow Upper School, theater performance; Harrison Rosenthal, Barstow Upper School, voice classical; and Emily Wolf, Olathe North, photography.