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Bemidji Middle ÍáÍáÂþ»­ recently announced Makenna Heisler, Vienna Hilliard, Jasper Leach, Sean O’Beirne and Piper Crawford as fine arts students of the month.

The fine arts student of the month for visual arts is eighth-grader Makenna Heisler. Her favorite thing to create is anything hands-on that lets you be creative and use your resources. She thinks it’s important we keep creating art so that the world doesn’t get too bland and colorless.

Heisler's favorite part of the creative process is the final product you end up with, and going through each step and complication to see what it creates. She creates because it allows her to brainstorm and come up with new ideas to make art.

Heisler was chosen as fine arts student of the month because she is a dedicated worker who tackles art challenges with gusto and goes the extra mile to make sure her work turns out like a masterpiece.

The fine arts student of the month for choir is Jasper Leach. He is in sixth grade and decided to join choir because he really loves to sing. The things he enjoys most about choir are learning more about music and working to become a better singer. Leach said his future goals in singing include becoming the best singer he can be.

Along with singing in the choir, Leach is also a member of the middle school show choir. He was chosen for student of the month because he is a positive member of the choir and brings a wonderful energy to class.

Sixth-grader Vienna Hilliard is the Fine Arts Student of the month for band. Hilliard started out playing the trumpet as a beginning band musician but learned she was more excited about playing the flute. In a mere three weeks, she worked tirelessly to switch over to the flute. She sought out extra help from friends and the director and worked daily to learn this new instrument just in time for the school's winter band concert.

This drive and initiative is what earned Hilliard the honor of being featured for the month of December. "What I enjoy most about band is that you can make new friends with people that play the same instrument as you," said Hilliard. "A musical goal I have is to be able to play ‘The Tempest’ which is one of our songs." In addition to band, she is in volleyball and plays the cello.

The Fine Arts student of the month for art workshop is sixth grader Sean O’Beirne. He comes to the workshop for the after-school club that makes fish decoys. O'Beirne says that it’s important to keep making things with our hands in this digital age so that our brains can develop and not be addicted to social media. His favorite part of the fish decoy club is being with friends, working with his hands and seeing what the wood can become.

Violin player Piper Crawford is the fine arts student of the month for orchestra. She plays violin in the seventh-grade orchestra. She loves to play all types of music and her favorite part about orchestra is getting to learn new music and meet new people.

Crawford's future goals are to learn how to play faster songs. She was chosen for fine arts student of the month for her willingness to always help out and her attention to detail in whatever she is doing.