Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Karol Arrives in Colombia!
Our fabulous MSW intern, Karol, has arrived in Cartagena, Colombia. She has already met with the principal and teachers from the school that will be collaborating with us on our photography project. Karol will be meeting with 9 Colombian youth in the next couple of days to introduce them to the project and plan their photo field trips. We are so excited to see the images these youth take of their communities and can't wait to share their images with our youth!
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Transforming teens lives through art & technology
At the Transitional Youth Academy, we’ve learned that art and technology provide some of the best opportunities to engaging struggling youth with opportunities that motivate and empower them to move their lives in a more positive direction.
Last year we were able to combine these interests with our photography program. Students learned not only the art of photography, but the science and technology of it as well, by working digitally with their creations. Students were deeply impacted by the opportunity to learn, to express their own creativity, and to exhibit their creations in a gallery where they were recognized for their hard work and inspiration.
Everyone at Interfaith Community Services was incredibly proud of the students, whose vibrant artwork hangs in the halls of the Coastal Service Center.
This year, thanks to some incredible community partners, we have an opportunity to expand on this amazing program.
The Transition Youth Academy was recently awarded a grant from the AT&T Foundation to support an expanded art and technology project with our youth. With these funds, the program is developing another photography project for 2011, with the goal of integrating technology in a way that will build bridges between TYA students and students from Cartagena, Columbia, through the use of video, email, skype, and photography.
This international artistic and technological exchange will add a cross-cultural relational dimension to the photography program, bringing an awareness of, and appreciation for, diversity amongst the students in the project.
The goal is simple yet breathtaking: to meaningfully connect the youth of two continents through art and technology so they may share their life, their culture, and their experiences with each other and learn that others are not so different than themselves.
We believe this “cultural exchange” has the potential to empower and enrich the lives of these students by helping them become more globally minded, more technologically sophisticated, and more artistically inspired.
And it gets even better. This year we have been given the unprecedented opportunity to culminate our project with an exhibit of our student’s photography at the Oceanside Museum of Art, in November, 2011.
These are the kinds of opportunities that change student’s lives. With fewer and fewer art and technology programs being offered by the financially struggling school system, it has become increasingly important for organizations like Interfaith to offer the kinds of enrichment activities that will transform and empower our community’s youth.
Last year we were able to combine these interests with our photography program. Students learned not only the art of photography, but the science and technology of it as well, by working digitally with their creations. Students were deeply impacted by the opportunity to learn, to express their own creativity, and to exhibit their creations in a gallery where they were recognized for their hard work and inspiration.
Everyone at Interfaith Community Services was incredibly proud of the students, whose vibrant artwork hangs in the halls of the Coastal Service Center.
This year, thanks to some incredible community partners, we have an opportunity to expand on this amazing program.
The Transition Youth Academy was recently awarded a grant from the AT&T Foundation to support an expanded art and technology project with our youth. With these funds, the program is developing another photography project for 2011, with the goal of integrating technology in a way that will build bridges between TYA students and students from Cartagena, Columbia, through the use of video, email, skype, and photography.
This international artistic and technological exchange will add a cross-cultural relational dimension to the photography program, bringing an awareness of, and appreciation for, diversity amongst the students in the project.
The goal is simple yet breathtaking: to meaningfully connect the youth of two continents through art and technology so they may share their life, their culture, and their experiences with each other and learn that others are not so different than themselves.
We believe this “cultural exchange” has the potential to empower and enrich the lives of these students by helping them become more globally minded, more technologically sophisticated, and more artistically inspired.
And it gets even better. This year we have been given the unprecedented opportunity to culminate our project with an exhibit of our student’s photography at the Oceanside Museum of Art, in November, 2011.
These are the kinds of opportunities that change student’s lives. With fewer and fewer art and technology programs being offered by the financially struggling school system, it has become increasingly important for organizations like Interfaith to offer the kinds of enrichment activities that will transform and empower our community’s youth.
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