Spotlight GRAND finalist!

 $5,000 Prize

2010 Spotlight Grand Prize Winner

Mrs. Dooley's student, Benito Rojas, was THE GRAND PRIZE WINNER in the still photography category of the LA Music Center’s Spotlight Awards, a highly competitive and esteemed art contest. This is an incredible achievement and high honor as Benito's photography was selected from amongst 1,000 of the most promising young photographers in all of southern California! 

He was honored at a gala ceremony at the Music Center's Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and received a $5,000 cash scholarship as a prize.

As far as we know, this is the first time that a student from East Los Angeles ever won this top, coveted award. 

Benito brought special honor to his school and community since 90% of the semi-finalist student photographers were from private schools such as Harvard-Westlake (costs $23,000 a year), the Marlborough School (costs $25,250 a year) and Crossroads (costs ~$15,000 a year). 

A thousand students entered this 20-year-old, nationally acclaimed contest from across all of Southern California -from Los Angeles to San Diego to Santa Barbara.

Only 12 photo students were chosen out of this huge pool of entrants. 

The 1,000+ submissions were reviewed by leading photography professionals, including the current Photography Department Chair of the world-renowned Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, who considered the technical expertise involved in each work including its craft and visual quality and also analyzed how effectively the works expanded artistic boundaries and demonstrated artistic sensitivity and vision.

The judges also met with Benito and the other Photography semi-finalist to interview him about his art and review his portfolio.