Parsippany Teen's Photography Wins National Grand Prize

College is still more than four years away for Neona Wong, but she’s already winning awards from institutions of higher learning.

The eighth-grader at Central Middle School has used her creativity and passion to make her name nationally known, winning a grand prize for photography this month in a nationwide competition put on by Ringling College in Sarasota, Florida.

The competition, which promotes art-based learning for middle and high school students, offered three categories, including photography, illustration, and written.

Wong’s entry into the photography category, accompanied by a short essay, won the grand prize out of hundreds of entries from across the country.

Wong’s photo was based on a theme from the book The Giver, and shows two people facing a wall with their hands on the shoulders of a young girl with her head down, facing the camera, but wearing a pink jacket.

In her essay, Wong wrote, “But The Giver showed me a whole new side of things: it’s okay to be set apart, it is okay to be set apart, it is okay to feel, to love. My picture draws a parallel to the black and white world Jonas lived in … However, as we grow older, the color that makes us stand out starts fading. Slowly, we turn black and white to fit in, to try to make others accept us.”

Wong’s entry was pitted against those from students in seventh, eighth, and ninth grade. The win brings a grand prize of an all-expense paid trip to the Ringling College Creative Awards Ceremony at Ringling College of Art & Design in Sarasota, Florida, and a VIP tour of Universal Studios in Orlando during the week of April 17, 18, and 19.

While Wong’s creativity was waiting to be exposed, she had some help in the form of a nudge from her teacher, Joanne Hirsch, who’s been an educator for 35 years.

Hirsch, Wong’s English teacher, told her class about the competition back in December and encouraged students to enter despite it not being an English course-specific theme.

“I remember when Neona submitted her entry to me,” Hirsch said in an email to Patch. “I was so impressed by how original, creative and profound it was. The theme she focused on was a dominant one throughout the book, which she clearly related to herself and her own life experience, while the photograph was unique and thought provoking.”

As a result of being Wong’s teacher, Hirsch has been awarded a full scholarship to the week-long Ringling College of Art + Design Summer Teacher Institute in Sarasota, Florida from July 5 to 11.

To see Wong’s winning entry, click here.

Pictured: Neona Wong and Joanne Hirsch. Photo Courtesy Joann Hirsch.

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