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When Berkeley High School junior Allison Roberts entered the New York Times Magazine high school photography contest, she did it only because it was required for a grade in her photography class. 

A month later, Allison has her “A” grade, plus a $1,000 check and a new digital camera as the grand prize winner of the contest. Her photo will be published in the New York Times Magazine on Sunday. 

The contest, which drew thousands of entries from across the country, set out to select a student to fill the “What They Were Thinking” column in the June 1 issue of the magazine. Each week the column showcases a picture of a person or group of people and prints an excerpt from an interview with the subject of the photograph to reveal his or her thoughts and feelings. 

After struggling to come up with an idea for a subject, Allison chose her 10-year-old cousin Rachel Seban. The resulting picture shows Rachel leaning against the wall in her bedroom in what Allison called “that typical 10-year-old wanting to be a model pose.” 

The interview, which Allison wrote, will accompany the photograph in the magazine. In it Rachel complains about the end of spring break and reveals her goal of some day working as an actress or singer. 

“At first I thought the assignment would be really hard to do,” Allison said. “But once I finally decided to do my cousin I ended up having a lot of fun with it.” 

Berkeley High photography teacher Lucinda Daly submitted 41 entries to the Times from her Advanced Photo II students. Daly said she was not entirely surprised when she received a phone call saying that one of the entries had taken the top award. 

“It was a great photograph,” Daly said. “She really deserved to win.” 

When they entered the contest, the students put Daly’s contact information on the group application sheet, so she was the first to learn that Allison’s photo had won. Daly went to Allison’s house two weeks ago to tell her the good news. Allison said she was shocked. 

“I didn’t believe it at first,” she said. “In fact, it’s still pretty hard to believe.” 

On Friday Allison will appear on the “KTVU Mornings On Two” television program, an experience she was apprehensive about. 

“I’m really nervous,” she said. “It’s kind of scary to me.” 

While Allison said the attention has made her uncomfortable, her cousin Rachel was thrilled about their newfound fame. 

“It’s always been her goal to be in the newspaper—it goes along with her wanting to be an actress or something,” Allison said. “She thinks this is great.”