Monday was a good day for fourth grader Carson Palmer, a student at Castle Heights Elementary.

At noon, he got to stand in front of his class and be awarded a national honor concerning his Utah PTA Reflections contest entry.

“Not many students in Carbon School District get national awards,” Superintendent Lance Hatch told the class. “This is special.”

PTA Reflections is a nationally acclaimed student recognition program to encourage artistic creativity in the classroom and at home. Students from Kindergarten through 12th grade have participated in the last year with a theme of Within Reach.  Each year there is a theme search, where students send in their ideas in hopes that their theme will be chosen to be used.

The arts and Utah PTA Reflections program support student success and serve as a valuable tool for building strong partnerships in school communities. Judging is done at the school’s first, the winning entries move onto council and then region, before heading to Utah PTA.  Utah PTA can send only 30 entries onto National PTA for judging. One entry per art category, per age group.  This year National PTA received 1,053 student submissions from 50 State PTA across the nation.  Carson’s film entry was one of the 30 entries that advanced from Utah to National PTA.

Carson’s film won an Award of Excellence in Film at National PTA, which is no small feat. He is one of three Award of Excellence winners in his age division. For his efforts, he will get $200 Young Artist Scholarship and his work will be featured in National PTA traveling exhibition.

Reflections for Utah PTA is a huge program. It had over15,000 students participate during the last year. Compared to the other states, Utah has one of the highest participation rates in the Reflections program.

The video is online and to view his wonderful National Reflections award-winning entry go to https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqbxDDcydGw19zQMWP2EWCQ?view_as=subscriber