{"id":68959,"date":"2022-11-02T09:53:29","date_gmt":"2022-11-02T14:53:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=68959"},"modified":"2022-11-02T13:00:45","modified_gmt":"2022-11-02T18:00:45","slug":"let-your-voice-be-heard-poster-competition-highlights-student-beliefs-second-generation-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=68959","title":{"rendered":"‘Let Your Voice Be Heard!’ Poster competition highlights student beliefs, second-generation winner"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BY CAITLIN LEIKER<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finalists in the 15th annual \u201cLet Your Voice Be Heard!\u201d poster competition are as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1st place – Paige Polifka-Denson ($700)
2nd place – Avery Jones ($500)
3rd place – Lauryn Becker ($350)
4th place – MaKenna Hammond ($200)
5th place – Ian Will ($150)
6th place – Riley Tinder ($150)
**Total $2,000 in scholarships provided by Donnette Noble of FHSU\u2019s Civic Engagement and Learning<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Art and Design department also provided $450 in scholarships for the following awards:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Voting Poster – Paige Polifka-Denson
Students\u2019 Choice Award –\u00a0 Riley Tinder
\u201cDo It For Real\u201d Award – Travis Wierman<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Over the eight-week project, the Graphic Design class of 15 students created a total of 75 posters, 58 of which were displayed in the Schmidt Center atrium and voted on from Oct. 24-28.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To view all of the posters and read the artist descriptions online, click here<\/a>. (Opinions and statements made as part of this class assignment do not reflect the opinions of Fort Hays State University or Tiger Media Network).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karrie Simpson-Voth, chair of the Art and Design department and professor of Graphic Design, first used the project as a teaching tool for her class in the early 2000s. However, at the suggestion of Provost Jill Arensdorf, the director of the American Democracy Project at the time, Simpson-Voth made it a student competition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students were required to choose whatever topic they wanted under the theme of \u201ccivic engagement\u201d\u2013 voting, social issues, the economy, environmental protection, world leaders, etc. After that, they had to form their idea (or multiple ideas) into five different graphic design styles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The students agreed that the hardest parts of the competition were coming up with a concept, completing their posters on time, and getting enough sleep. Once they had decided on their theme and style, the class centered on the evidence behind their projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had a panel from the political professors,\u201d Becker said. \u201cWe had to do a lot of research into our ideas, and how we were going to convey them in a respectful way while still getting our point across.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through the years, Simpson-Voth has found that many students come into her class not knowing what to think about current issues\u2026or they\u2019ve only been told what they should believe because of how they were raised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To start brainstorming, she asks how many students have talked about things like politics and religion with their families, and how those conversations usually go. Then, she asks the students about what makes them feel angry or depressed when they look at the world, following up with what makes them excited and passionate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Connecting to such emotions helps students identify the problems, and work to find and portray a solution through their artwork. Or, they can offer educational commentary on an issue or belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simpson-Voth said the students did an excellent job maintaining honest, respectful, open-minded communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou have to get a base somewhere,\u201d Simpson-Voth said. She told her students, \u201cIf you\u2019re trying to convince someone who doesn\u2019t agree with you, then you need to be talking to that person in class.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year, many of the posters spoke out against school shootings\u2013some presenting stark arguments and statistics, while others theorized or satirized solutions to the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s what we believe,\u201d Jones said. \u201cIt\u2019s our own opinions. We\u2019re just so glad that everybody came out and voted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not uncommon for the class\u2019s poster display to provoke angry responses from the Hays community, and occasionally members of the artists\u2019 families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll kids of this age are dogged on for not getting out there and voting, not participating, or not being informed enough.\u201d Simpson-Voth set the standard from the beginning: \u201cYou better have the exact stat, and you better have a QR code or a website to back this up, because as soon as they go up online, people are going to challenge you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simpson-Voth said this can provide an opportunity for students to practice standing their ground in a respectful and educated manner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few of this year\u2019s projects were physically interactive, including Paige Polifka-Denson\u2019s piece. The main organization on her poster was RAINN (Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network). It is the nation\u2019s largest entity fighting sexual violence, and it operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline (1-800-656-4673).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Terri Polifka, Paige\u2019s mother who was present at the awards Monday morning, also won the same poster competition as she was finishing her degree in graphic design in 2008. Simpson-Voth was Terri\u2019s teacher as she balanced her degree work with the responsibilities of being a single mother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cI remember Paige was small at the time,\u201d Simpson-Voth reminisced. \u201cPaige and my children were about the same age\u2026we would take the kids to go to the park, or go get them ice cream, and we would sit and talk about her ideas. She had no time outside of class because she was parenting and working, so this is what we would do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Terri, having gone through the same rigorous process for her own posters when she was an art student, said that this year\u2019s class did an amazing job on their pieces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel like some people come up and say, \u2018It\u2019s just a poster; it\u2019s not that big of a deal,\u2019\u201d Terri said. \u201cBut the concept that goes behind it\u2026fine-tuning the message that you want to send, and simplifying it so much that somebody can understand it just by looking at a poster is extremely difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paige said that her poster was inspired by collective past experiences with men in her own life and in her friends\u2019 lives, especially after unhealthy relationships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[It\u2019s like] recovering after you\u2019ve loved and cared for this person, and you\u2019re realizing that it wasn\u2019t what you made it up to be when you were in the moment,\u201d Paige said. \u201cThat feeling is universal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the small pieces of the poster were direct quotes from her and other women she knew \u2013 derogatory and sexualizing things that men had said to them in passing, intimate situations, and toxic relationships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On her poster, Paige covered the woman\u2019s body in small text bubbles containing the phrases. She prompted viewers to remove them \u201cif you have said or have been told one of the following quotes.\u201d The message under the quotes read, \u201c1 in 16 women lose their virginity to rape. 56% were verbally pressured.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond highlighting the harm of the action itself, Paige intended to highlight the harm of the language that goes along with it. So, she tried to visually represent what that idea felt like. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI hope I did justice to the people I had asked,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe interaction of the poster, where people have to remove a part of that woman\u2026that\u2019s literally what happens,\u201d Terri said. \u201cYou take a piece of that woman when you do that to her. I think it was so strong, and too many people can relate to it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY CAITLIN LEIKER Finalists in the 15th annual \u201cLet Your Voice Be Heard!\u201d poster competition are as follows: 1st place – Paige Polifka-Denson ($700)2nd place… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":68970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[56,3397,3398,11],"tags":[14747,14915,9145,14914,14916],"class_list":["post-68959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-area-news","category-campus-news","category-news","tag-caitlin-leiker","tag-fhsu-center-for-art-and-design","tag-graphic-design","tag-let-your-voice-be-heard","tag-poster-competition"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Let-Your-voice-be-heard-3.jpg?fit=512%2C384&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68959"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68979,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68959\/revisions\/68979"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/68970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}