Metro Opens Doors: City School Students Win Metro Poster Contest
by Hope Katz Gibbs
Editor, City Schools Close-Up
City of Fairfax Schools
METRO OPENS DOORS FOR MORE THAN JUST ITS passengers, it seems. Two Fairfax High students—2005 graduate Youkeun, who is now studying at Parsons School of Design, and junior Lim
Oh—are winners of an annual art contest sponsored by the
region’s largest transit company.
“Each year, about 450 students from across the region submit entries, so to have two students from the same school win this competition in consecutive years is truly amazing,” says Randy Howes, Metro’s community relations specialist who came up with the student poster contest idea in 1994. “I attribute their success to art teacher, Neil French, who has worked with both women. A student needs to be talented to win, of course, but they also need someone to shepherd that talent. Neil is obviously doing an astounding job.”
The humble art teacher gives all the credit to his gifted stu-
dents: “I just try to guide and encourage my students,” says
French. “They do all the hard work.”
For their accomplishment, the winners received a $500 US
Savings Bond, and had their artwork displayed as posters on
Metrorail trains and Metrobuses. Earlier this fall the originals
were on exhibit at Metro Center in Washington, DC.
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