Earlier this month the 21st Annual Pocono Arts Council Juried Student Art Show 2014 opened in Stroudsburg. Students from the four county schools participated.

Six accomplished students did Pleasant Valley proud: Narissa Hajratalli, Mary Cerbone, Brittany Carrao, Katie Carrao, Sofia Janak and Nicholas Cobb.Awards were given in the following four categories for first place through honorable mention: 2-D; Fine Crafts (Functional); 3-D Works (Sculpture/Non-Fictional); Photography; and Best of Show.Pleasant Valley art students received six of the 17 awards.Narissa Hajratalli, 17, a junior, won second place in the 2-D Works category for her watercolor, "Golders Green, England." It was a place she visited last summer.Mary Cerbone won an Honorable Mention in Fine Crafts for her work of "An Eternal Dance."Brittany Carrao, 18, a senior, walked away with a First Place in 3-D Works for an acrylic on book paper, titled "Ink Beetle."It is a concentration piece for a college level portfolio which will be submitted to an AP college board. She could receive up to three college credits for the portfolio.Corraro has been accepted at the University of Arts in Philadelphia and has already acquired $80,000 in scholarships. She wants to study animation.Katie Carrao, 14, a freshman, took second place in the 3-D Works category for her ceramic piece of an imaginary creature, part elephant, part dolphin, titled "Friends."Sofia Janak, 14 and a freshman, placed third in 3-D Works for her sculpture titled, "The Elephant." She sculpted it in clay, then molded it in plaster, cast it in paper then applied a copper patina.Nicholas Cobb, a junior, earned a third place in Photography titled, "Sand Castle," which depicted a close-up of sand castles on a beach.George Boudman, PVHS art teacher, says the advantages of students participating in the Pocono Arts Council Juried Student Art Show provides feedback from the public, their peers and professionals.It's an opportunity for them to display their art outside of school in a professional gallery. It lets them see how they compete with neighboring schools, he said, adding that art is a real strong discipline at Pleasant Valley."Typically 5-10 percent of our graduating students go on to art schools, and usually to the top three art schools in the country," said Boudman.He has been at PV for the last eight years and in that time, the school has had students who have received a combined total of over $2 million in scholarships to study art.Boudman said there are many PV graduates who are doing well in the world of art. One of those students is currently running the Corning Glass Museum, another is a curator at a well-known New York City museum, and another just won a prestigious art award in the Graphics Art Society in NYC."We have PV alumni who are now professional photographers and artists come back to work with our students throughout the year. We like to try to bridge the gap when we can. We're like a family," Boudman says.