East Islip Earns 17 Best In Show Awards At LI Media Arts

From E. Islip Schools: A superb 17 of East Islip High School’s students recently won “Best in Show” awards at the annual Long Island Media Arts Show at Five Towns College, including 15 art students (Niamh Amitrao, Max Calarco, Robert Camlet, Bella Carlozzi, Hailey Cooke, Julia Desiderio, Jenna Donnelly, Sabine Gebhard, Emma Jakits, Jake Kenny, Michael Laird, Anna Langman, Jessica Montijo, Leah Neville and Kerry Smith) and two video production and broadcast television students (Andrew Johnson and Stephanie Milito).

“This was my second year in a row receiving a ‘Best in Show’ award and it was such a valuable experience,” said Donnelly. “It was a fun time and I learned a lot from the experience,” said Cooke. “It was an honor to receive ‘Best in Show’ award for my photography,” said Smith.
“This year’s show was another great experience for the students,” said teacher Joy Taylor. “Presenting work for evaluation by professionals in the field can be daunting, and these students have both talent and courage. Congratulations to all of them!” “I am so proud of all of the students that received ‘Best in Show’ awards,” said teacher Heather Toomey. “We even had students win more than one for their outstanding work in photography and computer graphics. These students had some of the strongest work at the show, and this event is such a wonderful opportunity and experience for them to get critiqued by professionals.”

Videos by East Islip students entered in the contest included “Costa Rica Vacation”
by Chris Alessi, “Daydream” by Nick Conzo and “Dystopia” by Jenna Donnelly. The two “Best in Show” winners, the acute anxiety disorder film “Breathe” by Milito and social media horror short “Double Check” by Johnson. Were submitted to the First Exposure Film Festival and Milito’s video will be shown at the Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington in May. “It was so rewarding being able to have all my work pay off by being awarded best in show,” said Johnson.

“Being able to showcase my work at Five Towns College was such a fun experience,”
said Milito. “I’m thankful for being given the opportunity to portray such emotions over film.”
“Every year I am always very impressed by the quality of the videos our students produce for the Media Arts show,” said teacher James Connell. “A tremendous amount of hard work goes in to the planning, filming and editing of the videos, and it is done at a very high quality.”