Two Mercer Island students received an Award of Excellence (second place) in the National PTA Reflections arts program.

Mercer Island High School sophomore Jessica Waller was honored for her original music composition, Adventures in a Faraway Land. Waller, who plays the French horn with the school’s wind ensemble, wrote a duet for the French horn and piano.

Sydney Chou of Islander Middle School was honored for literature for her story “Soaring Imagination, Grounded Roots.”

A panel of experts selected Chou and Waller’s submission from among nearly 300,000 entries from 8,000 schools across the country. Reflections offers students the opportunity to create original works of art in six areas: visual art, photography, literature, music composition, dance/choreography and film/video. The theme for the 2015-2016 school year is “Let Your Imagination Fly.”

“Congratulations to Jessica Waller and Sydney Chou on their outstanding achievement and recognition, and thank you to our Mercer Island PTAs for their efforts each year to showcase our students’ artistic works through Reflections,” said Plano.

The Washington State PTA and the Mercer Island PTA Council previously awarded Chou and Waller first place. Their works will be showcased at the National Art Exhibit Opening Ceremony at the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 10, 2017.

State PTA Reflections honorees from Mercer Island include:

• Islander Middle School: Andrew Yeh, Award of Excellence (second place) for music composition.
• Island Park: Karenna Stone, Award of Merit (third place) for dance/choreography.
• West Mercer: Ava Yeh, Award of Excellence (second place) for music composition.