When Ava Schultz was younger, she remembers building a snowman with her aunt and using a hot dog for the nose.
While it has been years since that time, it stuck with her and she was able to turn that into the holiday card design chosen by Dutchess BOCES for this year’s card. One key difference: She went more traditional for the nose on the snowman, using a carrot.
Schultz, a Pine Plains junior, said the base design took her about a week to do but there were a couple of iterations before it went to paper. 
The BOCES holiday card is an annual part of Stephen Lawson’s Graphic Arts & Design classes, designed to help students learn what it is like to work on a project for a job. All students submit designs which are then voted on by the administrative cabinet. The chosen card is sent to every BOCES superintendent in New York along with school principals and superintendents in Dutchess County and others in the region.
Part of the project involves problem-solving.
“I had to fix it on paper because part of the snow wasn’t showing and I also added the snow and stars – the large star represents the North Star, but I wanted it to be what people normally think of when they draw stars,” she said.
Another change was changing the logo color from blue to white at the suggestion of classmates and friends.
Overall, Schultz enjoyed working on the project.
“It felt pretty good, it was fun,” Schultz said, adding that she was excited at what’s ahead in her graphic design classes as it is something she will likely pursue as a career.
Lawson said he was thrilled Schultz enjoyed the project even though at times it was challenging.
“Students are learning many things at once when we take on this challenge. It includes coming up with an idea, learning new software to execute it and meeting the needs of a client. Ava was able to accomplish them all with this design,” he said.