Contest puts spotlight on Agoura High student

PICTURE PERFECT—Luke Suzumoto's photograph of a ballerina friend won first place at the Music Center Spotlight Awards, a premier competition for Southern California high school students. Luke Suzumoto, a senior at Agoura High School, has won first place in the visual arts category at the Music Center Spotlight Awards competition.

Suzumoto's endearing portrait of a ballerina earned him a $5,000 cash award.

The Spotlight awards program is a national recognition and scholarship program for Southern California high school students in the visual and performing arts. The program provides students with $100,000 in annual scholarships.

The portrait of ballerina Paige Tavera, Suzumoto's friend, was one of more than 1,000 entries in the photography category.

Before Suzumoto's photograph captured the top spot, he had to go through several rounds of judging. Fifteen photographs and 15 two-dimensional pieces of art landed in the semifinals of a competition and exhibition at the Armory Center for the Arts March 21. First and secondplace winners in each category were announced at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles several weeks later.

"I was honored to win first place at the Spotlight Awards, and I felt pure excitement to be awarded on stage at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion," Suzumoto said.

Suzumoto said he always enjoyed taking photographs, but it was his teacher, Ken Neely, who helped him see photography as art.

"Mr. Neely is the person who got me to love photography," Suzumoto said.

A threeyear photography student at Agoura High, Suzumoto said the photo class has always been his favorite. The hands-on courses have inspired Suzumoto to pursue the arts in college. He said he will study illustration and animation at Cal State San Jose.

Suzumoto's Spotlight award isn't the first from Neely's class. There've been both first and second place finishers before. As for Suzumoto's winning portrait, Neely couldn't be happier.

"We are very proud of Luke," Neely said. "Luke is a wonderful boy and very kind—well-liked, sharp, quiet, good moral values— and he loves to learn."

The four-year photography program at Agoura High School allows students to explore a variety of techniques and subjects, including fashion, portraiture, landscape and architecture, said Kyla McGinley, a junior in the class with Suzumoto.

Students at Newbury Park and Hueneme high schools also captured Spotlight awards. Alana Grossman, a junior at Newbury Park High School, won first place in the nonclassical voice category, and Katie Worcester, a junior at Hueneme High School in Port Hueneme, came in second.