Oswald Montepeque, a ninth-grade student in Barbara Vaccola’s art class at Cranston High School West, found out recently that his design has been chosen as this year’s logo for the Rhode Island Association of Emergency Managers 2019 Preparedness Conference.

On March 28, Montepeque was recognized by Sam Adams, president of the RIAEM, and Stephen Conard of the Rhode Island Emergency Management Association for his achievement.

Montepeque’s logo design will be used on a wide variety of marketing and design items for the upcoming conference, including banners, programs and gift bag items.

According to Conard, the logo contest was part of an effort to utilize the artistic talents of local youth rather than outsourcing its logo design needs.

Vaccola asked Conard to visit her classroom to speak about RIEMA and what its purpose is as a means of further educating the students about the local agency.

“Steve did a trivia game with the class and one girl knew all the answers,” Vaccola said. “When we asked her how she knew so much, she said that she’d learned about the RIEMA in the fifth-grade when there was a program in her class about it. It turns out that Steve had created the program.”

Conard said he was pleased to see the impact of the program coming full circle and have a student from Vaccola’s class win the logo contest.

“There was a lot of participation and some amazing artwork,” he said.

Montepeque designed his logo with the state’s key identifiers in mind, incorporating an anchor, a lighthouse and a beacon of light over the ocean. In keeping with the preparedness theme, he had the “road to recovery” winding around the lighthouse to tie it all together.

As a former graphic designer, Conard was particularly impressed with Montepeque’s submission.

“He had all of the elements of the state’s identity in there,” he said. “He did a great job.”

Vaccola was proud of Montepeque’s achievement, especially at the start of his high school artistic career.

“Oswald’s work is amazing,” she said. “Just amazing. He is very mechanical, very precise. He wants to be an animator and he has a bright future ahead of him.”