New Hyde Park student's photo wins art contest
Katie Fitzgerald, a junior at New Hyde Park Memorial High School, has won first place in Zo Magazine's 2018 Teens Media Expo. Fitzgerald, second from right, is pictured here with fellow students Emma Fabilli, left, and Laura Los, who were both third-place winners, and art chairwoman Katrin Marino, second from left, and Principal Richard Faccio. Credit: Sewanhaka Central School District
A photograph by a New Hyde Park Memorial High School student won first place in a multimedia contest coordinated by the online publication Zo Magazine.
Katherine Fitzgerald, 16, a junior, took the top spot in the art category of the magazine's 2018 Teen Media Expo for her work titled "Circle Project," featuring a series of multicolored circles. She said she used a Nikon D3300 to photograph the inside of a tube-shaped slide in the park across the street from the high school.
"It feels pretty amazing," Fitzgerald said. "Art has been in my life since I was a child. This was a good confidence booster."
She received $300 cash and $300 for the charity of her choice — the Leah Kuczinski Legacy Foundation. Kuczinski, whom Fitzgerald said was a "close friend," died in a go-kart accident in Florida during the February midwinter break. She was 16 and a sophomore at New Hyde Park Memorial.
Fitzgerald said her camera was a birthday gift from her brother John. The contest was an extra-credit assignment this fall for her photography class.
She is a member of her school's National Art Honor Society and a designer for the high school yearbook. She is on the varsity cheerleading team and the volleyball team and also plays in a volleyball league outside of school.
Michael R. Ebert is an education researcher and has worked for Newsday in various capacities since 2003. He was part of an 11-person team named as 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalists for investigative coverage of the LIRR's platform safety issues.
