When his geography teacher asked him to stay after class one day he assumed he’d gotten in trouble again. Sixth grade trouble just seemed to follow Jacob Allen Frazier around.

A sophomore at Rushville Consolidated High School, he had come to stay with his dad, Kenneth Allen Frazier, the summer before his freshman year.

This time the tenth-grader wasn’t in trouble. His teacher, Ruthie Leeth, encouraged him to enter a postcard contest.

“When I was in her class I would sit there and draw during the whole class. She used to get mad at me and hold me after class,” Jacob recalled. “One day she told me to stay after class and I thought I was in trouble again.”

Since what he had gotten in trouble for was spending class time drawing graffiti rather than working, she recommended he use his talents in a contest. Evidently the judges of the Geography Educators' Network of Indiana (GENI) competition recognized his talents too since they awarded him the grand prize.

It was the second annual postcard contest for Geography Action!/Geography Awareness Week 2010. The theme was Europe Beyond Borders. Students were evaluated on the quality of their work and how well the hand-drawn design and description conveyed the theme.

Leeth described the event.

“I am a Geography teacher at the high school,” she explained. “I am also a member of Geography Educators' Network of Indiana (GENI). They have a yearly postcard contest during their Geography Action week for students of all ages. They choose winners for elementary, middle, and high school divisions. Jacob, a 10th grade student of mine, won the high school division and then the grand prize over all categories.”

“Jacob drew the countries of Europe and colored them each a different color,” she said. “He then took the word ‘Unity’ and researched the word in each different European language. He wrote the word ‘Unity’ in the shape of each country in that country's language. It looks pretty neat! I am really proud and excited for Jacob!”

Both teacher and student were pleased with the finished project and confident the sophomore would win.

“I’d been in art contests in Indianapolis but I’d never won any statewide or anything, so that’s a first for me,” he noted.

The prize winning entry appeared in the Winter 2010 issue of the GENI newsletter.

He grew up in Indianapolis and attended Park Meadow School.

“It’s definitely different here,” he commented. “Before I left Indianapolis I was pretty skinny because in sixth grade I was really fat. Then I got kicked out of school in seventh grade so I pretty much used what time that I wasn’t getting tutored at the library to exercise and play basketball with a friend across the street and I lost a lot of weight. Before I left Indy I was really scrawny and now I’m chunky again because there’s nothing to do in Rushville.”

Whether he pursues a career in art will depend on whether he accomplishes his first goal.