Abby Leskiv, an eighth grader at Scripps Middle School, loves to play soccer, run track and play with her dog, Mocha.
She also speaks Russian fluently.
And when she decided that she wanted to learn Japanese, she didn’t realize it would get her national attention.
As part of a project for foreign language teacher Melissa Dalton’s Japanese class, Abby designed a traditional Japanese New Year’s postcard to be entered in a contest by the National Council of Japanese Language Teachers (NCJLT).
The postcards would be judged with other postcards submitted nationally in three different categories: most artistic, most comical and most original. As a school, Scripps could enter two postcards in each category, and after each member of the class created their postcards, the class took a vote for which six should be submitted in the national contest.
Abby’s was selected by her classmates to be entered in the most artistic category.
Abby takes art classes at Scripps and was able to put her art skills to the test when creating her postcard.
‘I spent the whole weekend working on it,? she said. ‘I just kept redoing it and redoing it.?
Dalton, points out that although Abby completed it during a weekend, it actually took months of learning Japanese and how to write before starting the postcard, as it had to include 46 characters on it.
‘It made us really proud for Abby to be selected by natives of Japan,? Dalton said of Abby winning first place in the most artistic competition.
This is the first time that Scripps has entered the contest, in which 600 different entries were submitted nationwide. In the middle school level, over 120 postcards were entered.
‘I told the students that if we won, we could have a gourmet sushi lunch,? said Dalton, who has held to her word and a Japanese-inspired party was thrown during class in Abby’s honor.
For Abby, who likes sushi, the whole experience has been worth the hard work of learning Japanese.
‘I was surprised,? she said of finding out that she placed first. ‘I didn’t think I would have a chance, so I was really surprised.?
Dalton describes Abby as a ‘well-rounded and globally minded person? and is looking forward to seeing great things from her. Abby hopes to become an international fashion designer and realizes that Tokyo is one of the fashion capitals of the world.
And while Japanese is not offered in high school, Abby hopes to continue learning the language. But in the meantime, Abby will spend her time being an eighth grader and playing with her dog, Mocha, who is named after her favorite type of coffee.