Terry Eder, Plano Senior High AP Music Theory teacher, and wife, Merrilyn      (left), their daughter, Kimberley Ahrens, and her husband, Chris Ahrens, are all music teachers in Plano ISD. Kimberley followed in her parents' footsteps and decided to teach at Plano, where she started dating Chris. 

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Eun "Jinny" Seo is a sophomore from Euless and goes to Colleyville Heritage High School. She studies visual arts and creates two-dimensional works exploring different media. Jinny plans on studying at the School of the Arts Institute of Chicago early college summer intensive program. There she will study painting and the human figure and is looking forward to exploring new styles of painting to help her expand her own work. 

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Kathleen Raymond, AP studio art teacher at Episcopal School of Dallas was selected from teachers across the nation to participate in a two week summer institute in drawing and painting at the Teacher Institute for Contemporary Art sponsored by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. To learn more about TICA, please see the SAIC website at http://www.saic.edu/continuing_studies/teacher/index.html#tica.

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The Young Masters Exhibition is now a dozen years old. For those who contend that art can make a powerful differences in a young person's life, it's an outtasight concept, smoothly executed. And the handsome dividend it pays each year is the body of very cool work it produces.http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/performingarts/stories/DN-artnotes_0228gd.ART.State.Bulldog.4b8a59a.html

To learn more about the award and the Saul Bell Design National Competition visit the website at:

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Dr. Terry Eder, AP Music Theory teacher at Plano Senior High and Lead AP Music Theory Teacher for the O'Donnell Foundation was selected as runner-up to the 2009 O'Donnell Texas AP Teacher of the Year. Presented annually by the Communities Foundation of Texas, the O’Donnell Texas AP Teacher Award recognizes one AP teacher in a Texas public high school for remarkable contributions to their students and school, as well as to the teaching profession. Nominations for the award may be submitted by a teacher, administrator, AP student or parent of an AP student.The cash award is believed to be the largest individual prize offered to a public school educator in the UnitedStates.
“I was wowed, extremely humbled and highly honored to be recognized as a finalist for this award,” Eder said. “Especially since it’s named after the O’Donnells, who have helped more students take more challenging and rigorous courses in the fine arts.” View articles on the award by visiting the following links:

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"It was a drama that largely took place behind the scenes of the great sweep of destruction, violence and final triumph of the second world war: the systematic looting of art by the Nazis, and the response and rescue effort by the United States and its allies." See the PBS interview with Robert Edsel and Jeffrey Brown on the PBS Online NewsHour's Art Beat page at http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/blog/2009/11/conversation-robert-edsel.html

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The Dallas Symphony Orchestra selected five O'Donnell Foundation AP Music Theory students to participate on the 2009-10 ten member Teen Council. Congratulations to G'Rondalyn Davis of South Grand Prairie; Chris Escarfullery of Plano Senior HIgh; Carson Marion of Woodrow Wilson; Tianne Mendenhall of Plano East Senior HIgh; Jocelyn Son-Hing of Plano Senior High.  The students were recognized at the O'Donnell Foundation's Night at the Symphony event on November 11, 2009 and were photographed with Maestro van Zweden.

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Terry Eder, Plano Senior High School Advanced Placement Music Theory Instructor and O'Donnell Foundation AP Music Theory Incentive Program Lead Teacher, recently served as "question leader" during a week long AP Music Theory exam reading for The College Board in which 113 high school and college educators participated. See the Plano District Digest at http://www.pisd.edu/staff/districtdigest/2009-10/achievements_10-22.shtml

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Kayla Escobedo, 2008 graduate of Booker T. Washington High School of the Performing and Visual Arts of Dallas ISD and 2008 O'Donnell Foundation Excellence in the Arts Scholarship Winner had artworks on exhibit at Harvard University's Penthouse Gallery in the Student Organization Center at Hilles through November 12, 2009. The Harvard Crimson writes "Escobedo has branched out into comics, painting, and film, while taking inspiration from literature and mythology.Escobedo’s exhibition at the SOCH Penthouse Gallery is the latest in a string of extensive contributions to the Harvard arts community. She is an illustrator for both Tuesday Magazine and the Harvard Lampoon, a semi-secret Sorrento Square social organization that used to occasionally publish a so-called humor magazine. Her artwork has also been featured in the Harvard Advocate and last year’s “Students Choose” exhibition in the Sert Gallery of the Carpenter Center." See the article at http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2009/11/6/out-abstract-escobedo-hands/

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The 2009 Association of Texas Photography Instructors Fall Contest took place on Saturday, November 7th. The entries came from schools across Texas, plus Kansas, New York and Wisconsin. Our congratulations go out to the winners and to all of the Episcopal School of Dallas students and teachers that chose to enter this year. 

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“The O'Donnell Foundation announces the recipients of the 2009 Excellence in AP Arts and Music Theory Scholarship Awards. The scholarship recognizes four outstanding high school seniors who have participated in or are currently participating in the O'Donnell Foundation's Dallas-area Advanced Placement Arts and Music Theory Incentive Program.”

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“The O'Donnell Foundation recognized eleven area high school students for their work featured in this year's Young Master's Exhibition, an exhibition of forty-two selected works of art created by Advanced Placement Studio Art students.”

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“Comerica Bank Chairman and CEO Ralph Babb today presented a $20,000 check to the W.E. Greiner Exploratory Arts Academy in recognition of Greiner students developing the winning design in the first annual Comerica Bank Vote for the Float Contest held in conjunction with the Jan. 1 Comerica Bank New Year’s Parade in downtown Dallas.”

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"The stars of this year's Comerica Bank New Year's Parade may be W.E. Greiner Middle School art students. Greiner art teacher Joanna Henry found out in October about the Cotton Bowl Classic parade's design-a-float contest for students. As a result, four of her students' drawings led to floats in Thursday's event, and Ms. Henry will be riding on one of the floats."

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“The Plano Senior High School fine arts department ended performing season on a high note – it recently was honored by the Grammy Foundation for its commitment to music education.”

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