“Everyone is human! Just like we’re all human, all branches sprout from the same tree; each branch helps the tree to catch sunlight. All branches different together!”
This is how Sabina Cottrill ’27 described her piece, “One Tree, Many Branches,” first-place winner, middle school category, in the Mountain States Anti Defamation League’s No Place for Hate art contest. Students from schools in Colorado and New Mexico entered more than 140 submissions along with descriptions of the meanings behind their works.
Sabina spent about seven hours on her piece, which she made in Procreate, a digital art program. She says she was inspired by something she saw in a book — five trees representing five groups, all tangled together. “When one blew away, they all did.”
Submissions were based on the prompt WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE WHEN…
- we build community?
- we find common ground?
- diversity is a strength?
- we take action against hate?
- we are different, together?

