Janice says she never thought it would be her art that would take her somewhere--she always thought she would become a professional soccer player. However, two painful knee surgeries changed that dream.

"When my first surgery happened, it was a mental setback," she remembers. "With my second, it completely took me out of the game."

Janice says that while she was a soccer player, she still enjoyed art in her free time. After she was forced to stop playing soccer, she began concentrating more on her art.

For the last year, Janice has been attending the Rainbow Art Studio in Cupertino, an independent studio where artists can work on their own personal projects with the guidance of a teacher.

"It's a place where you can set up on your own and be in an art environment," she says. "You can work on your own projects, and see other people's work."

Janice is enrolled in the portfolio class at Rainbow, which focuses on creating a body of work to help get high school students into art colleges.

"The teacher [Kyung Ahn] is there to guide me and give me tips on whatever I'm working on," she says. "She has guided a lot of people, so she knows what colleges are looking for and she knows which colleges have the best art programs."

It was from Ahn that Janice heard about Coca-Cola's "Art of Harmony" competition, which asks high school artists from nine metropolitan areas in the country each year to create a piece of art that illustrates what "living in harmony" means to them. Janice worked for several months on her entry.

"It took at least a couple of months of three to four sessions a week that were three- to five- hours long," she says. "Sometimes I would work all day on Saturdays. When you're in the groove, you just want to keep painting."

Janice's painting was complete in December, and she sent it to Coca-Cola. The painting depicts a person holding a bottle of Coca-Cola, and the skin on the person's face is different shades to reflect many ethnicities. A line made of the flags from various countries separates sections of the painting around the person's face, and each section contains an illustration of a well-known landmark from around the world, such as the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower in France and the pyramids in Egypt.

Janice wrote an essay to go along with her painting that explains its meaning--cultures around the world getting along.

A few weeks ago, the Song family got the call--Janice's painting was one of the top 12, and she was in the running for one of the contest's many prizes. The family was invited to attend the awards ceremony at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts on May 4.

"All the winners were really nervous; we were seated at the front of the theater. Everyone was really silent," she says.

Janice won an honorable mention award, which earned her a $200 cash prize and a mahogany keepsake box with her painting illustrated on the lid.

The 12 winning works of art will now be part of a national tour, including an exhibition at Coca-Cola's world headquarters in Atlanta.

"The caliber of artistic talent we consistently receive every year through the 'Art of Harmony' program is impressive, both in the quality and diversity of the art," says Carlos Pagoaga, national program manager for "Art of Harmony" within Coca-Cola.

Janice says she was pleasantly surprised to be named one of the top 12 winners.

"The day I found out, I was really happy, because I worked really hard on this," she says. "I was happy that my efforts were recognized."

Janice says this contest also has another special meaning for her--the message in her painting. She hopes it will inspire people around the world to get along more peacefully.

"I hope a lot of people realize our ethnicities can't split us apart. I just hope racism will not impede some people," she says.

Looking to the future, Janice says she is already thinking about college and knows she wants to major in art, possibly at UCLA or Brown University.

She adds that this is the first time she has ever received money for a piece of her artwork, and says she plans to put the $200 cash prize away and save it for college.

"Money doesn't grow on trees and I worked really hard for this, so I'm going to save it," she says.

Examples of Janice Song's artwork are on display at the Saratoga Library.