Western Hills Middle School student Gabriella Seal was recently notified that she was the winner of the Boston Celtics 2017-2018 Stay in School Writing and Art Contest presented by Arbella Insurance Foundation.

Seal was notified that she was one of just 25 student winners chosen for the writing/art category, out of hundreds of entries. Seal, a friend, and a chaperone were invited to attend The Boston Celtics End of Year Carnival at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center in Boston, Massachusetts.

Seal had participated in the contest as a means of making up an assignment shed missed in teacher Henry Maine’s English Language Arts class.

“I had offered this as a reading response or homework makeup assignment,” said Maine. “The students had a choice of entering artwork or writing, and Gabby had chosen writing.”

In her essay, Seal had to write about what pride meant to her or to make an acronym out of the word pride.

“I knew that everyone would say that pride was so great or amazing,” she said. “I thought about the seven deadly sins and that pride was not all positive. I related it to success and to failure.”

Seal said that she was surprised to hear that she had won the contest and saw the notification unexpectedly in an email.

“I probably wouldn’t have entered the contest if it wasn’t a homework makeup option,” she said.

On the day of the carnival in Boston, Seal had the opportunity to meet and have her picture taken with Celtics player Jaylen Brown.