Each year, students in Steven Larson’s Graphic Design II class compete for a chance to have their holiday card design used by Dutchess BOCES. This year, the honor went to three different students, who joined efforts to produce the winning entry – and it happened somewhat by accident.

Students typically work independently on the project and Poughkeepsie High School senior Rosa Celaya Louis was no different. But, her work wasn’t coming together the way she wanted. She spoke with Larson about it. “He told me to add me to it” and get some feedback. She reworked some things and then asked classmates Gianna Geraci, a senior at Millbrook High School and Lily Phoeung, a senior at Pawling High School, for their thoughts.

“I liked their ideas and they liked mine so I got the idea to work together,” Celaya Louis said.

Celaya Louis worked primarily on the layout and Photoshop work, Geraci on getting the photos and Phoeung on creating the decorations and then they passed the project around to each other and each added items or took away items until the finished product emerged.

“I had never worked as part of a team at BOCES until now and it was fun. I would do it again,” she said.

Even though this assignment was more like filling a client request (students were asked to make something trendy and holiday-related) and given a strict deadline, Celaya Louis didn’t treat it any differently.

“This is something I want to do for the rest of my life, so I try not to stress and just go with the flow. I like the way it came out,” she said.

Congratulations to all the young people who put forth the creativity and effort to make this year’s holiday card happen.