“Young people encounter many hurdles in life. Whether it’s at home, school, among friends, or just figuring out who they are and where they fit in. Expressions is challenging high school teens to use their creativity to share how they feel about what is happening in their world.” – The contest challenge from Expressions at Walgreens.
Expressions is a program Walgreens sponsored program designed to encourage students to explore their challenges to their ever-changing world through the arts medium. Over 3400 students nationwide participated in the Expressions Challenge by sharing their feeling about what is happening in their world. Earlier this year, students from Lucinda Stein’s English classroom at Gorham High School explored the hurdles in their lives to participate in the national contest sponsored by Walgreens. Students wrote about the stress of expectations, their mental health, some academic pressures, and gender identity just to name a few.
Their writing was transformed into artistic, multimedia videos. The judges were given the task to view the entries without knowledge of the students. When the judges determined the top 12 students, they were surprised to see that 4 students came from a single classroom in Gorham, Maine. On May 19, 2022, students from GHS honored in a virtual ceremony for their creativity to the above prompt.
Erin Castonguay won $1,000 and was recognized as the Spoken Word People’s Champ for her piece titled, Perfection. In her video, Erin points out the pressure of perfectionism and further encourages her peers to find what makes them happy so they can define their own versions of perfection.
Zach Emmons was the third-place finalist in the Spoken Word category winning $1,500 for his poem, To Be a Man. Zach reflects on the expectations put upon men in his society.
Curan Bassingthwaite and Allie Light worked together on their video, Success Under Stress. In it they explore the stresses of being a student athlete in high school. They won second place in the Media Arts gallery and get to split a $1,750 check!
The final student entry is by Emma Stevens. She also entered the Media Arts category with her video titled Why is She Never Enough? Emma includes her friends in this very important message showing us how we need to accept ourselves as enough instead of looking at others for that validation.
Emma won first place in her category and a $2,000 check with her very powerful message. Because the people at Expressions and Walgreens were so impressed to discover so many students won from a single classroom, the English teacher, Lucinda Stein, was chosen as a Teacher’s Champion in the Northeast Region of the United States winning $500. This was the first time GHS students entered the contest but it most likely will not be the last.
You may look to the Expressions Challenge Facebook page for all of these videos.