Recently we were invited to speak to a group of students at the Higginson-Lewis Middle School in Roxbury about Youth Design for “Career and Success Exploration Day” and engage them in a design-related activity. The students are participants in an after-school program called “Higg-Lew” Leaders, started by Sarah Spofford and Gabrielle Pingue, who asked Youth Design to participate in their “Career and Success Exploration” series.

Two of our recent Youth Design grads—Dahrell Rush and Khyle Parke— took part in the presentation and led the activity. After telling the students about Youth Design with Dahrell and Khyle’s input, I showed the the students some of the design work Dahrell and Khyle created in their Discovery Books during their last Youth Design summer, as well as a couple of self-portrait drawings they have each done on their own. The middle schoolers were very excited by the design and artwork, especially those present who like to draw and create artwork themselves.

Dahrell introduced the activity that he had developed, which was a drawing assignment that left plenty of room for imagination and individuality. In addition to the students there were several adult volunteers and program leaders present who took part in the drawing project also. It was a great opportunity for students and adults alike to explore visual story-telling and to hear from Dahrell, Khyle, and myself what we saw in their work that was strong and how it could be made stronger to have more visual impact and/or communicate their idea more effectively. Dahrell and Khyle wrapped up the activity by putting all the work together and leading the group in reflections and participatory critique. They concluded the meeting by offering advice to students about how to approach the process of trying something new without fear, pushing through moments of frustration, and some other very useful insights—applicable to a range of situations—that they have learned through their work as artists, as art/design students, and in their Youth Design workplace experiences.

Great job to the AIB students and kudos to Adam for thinking out-of-the-box, engaging young creative people with a fun idea!

The credit goes to the students responsible for painting these murals: Shannon Reed, Angela Mukai, Hugh Long and Matt Fans. They all attend the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University. Say hi to Mykael Tucker, a recent Youth Design graduate and Freshman in visual art at AIB!