MISD students continue in Reflections contest

Two students from the Mercer Island School District have earned state excellence awards in the PTA Reflections contest, while others have placed well in the district competition.

Alisa Jion Kim was given an award of excellence for her senior literature piece “Beauty is Perspective”, while Sooji Lee was given the same award for her senior visual arts project “Beauty is tangled with the ugly”.

In the district competition for the literature category here are the top finishers from Mercer Island: Alisa Jion Kim, first, Kara Glass, second, Eleanor Hildebrandt, third, Alisa Jion Kim, honorable mention.

In the musical composition category: Christina Sun, first and Kevin Taki, second. In photography: Natalie Marr, first, Caitlin Russell, second, Szi-Raj Kothari, honorable mention. In visual arts: Sooji Lee, first, Kara Glass, second, Christina Sun, third and honorable mention, Edwina Choung, honorable mention and Rosanna Lui, two honorable mentions.

Local students are National Merit finalists

Several local students have been named to the list of students who are National Merit Finalists and who will have the chance to become National Merit Scholars.

Six from Mercer Island High School, including: Aaron Azose, Matthew Johnson, Aaron King, Alisa Owens, Martina Unutzer and Matthew Wiens were named as local finalists. Jonah Kohen, who attends Northwest Yeshiva High School also named to the list, as was, Ishani Deo, Anna Franklin and Stewart Hackett Landerfeld of Lakeside Prep in Seattle.

The group, who were all semi-finalists, are among the 8,2000 students across the U.S. who could become scholars. Scholarship notices will be sent out to chosen students sometime in March.

Aaron Azose, Matthew Johnson, Aaron King, Alisa Owens, Martina Unutzer and Matthew Wiens were named as the local finalists from the group of 15,000 national semi-finalists.

The group are among the 8,200 students across the U.S. who could become scholars. Scholarship notices will be sent out to students sometime later in March.