FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE N.R. #30, 9/14/99

 Date: September 14, 1999
Contact: Irene Cromer
(703)791-8720

Rebecca Follendore, a 1999 graduate of Osbourn Park High School, is one of twelve students selected from around the country to be recognized as a National Advanced Placement Studio Art Honoree by the Advanced Placement program of the College Board. The Advanced Placement program offers students the opportunity to earn college credit for college-level work completed during high school. Follendore, who is currently a freshman at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, is the first student from the state of Virginia ever to be selected for this honor.

Each year the College Board selects the top twelve works of art from among the thousands submitted in fulfillment of the AP Studio Art class requirements. This year, more than 1,300 portfolios were submitted for consideration, each of which contained a minimum of four works of art.

The students, along with their AP art teachers, were honored by the College Board at a reception at the United States Senate Building on Capitol Hill on September 7. The twelve works of art will be featured on a poster, which will be distributed across the country to provide models for students to guide them as they develop their portfolios. In addition, the artwork will be part of a traveling exhibit, which will be displayed in the Capitol building and later in Princeton, N.J., the home of the College Board, and New York City.

Follendore received the high possible score, a 5, on her AP Art Portfolio. The honored artwork is a 10" by 15" landscape rendered in a triadic color scheme, using prismacolor colored pencils.

Follendore' s art teacher at Osbourn Park, Vicki Tuttle Burns, was also honored at the reception, along with the other eleven art teachers from around the country. Burns has been an art teacher in the school division for nine years, the last seven at Osbourn Park. She is department chair and has taught AP Art for the past five years.