Creative Journal and Learn and Serve

I decided to serve a second year as an Americorps*VISTA in the Learn and Serve program. My function has been to help students and teachers implement service learning projects into their curriculum. Since I bring 12 years of muraling experience with me into this position, it seemed only natural to create murals as our service. THIS IS EASIER SAID THAN DONE. Most of my first year in service was spent groping for ideas to bring the students together in a way that they can effectively collaborate, which we have done (with a modicum of success) from time to time, but it seemed like a coincidence when things happened to work out and had little to do with the plan that I had put into place.

Last September I met with the Volunteer coordinator with the YWCA to see if they would be interested in having student murals grace the walls of one of their local centers. We quickly came up with a multi-school mural project that centered around the following idea: EMBRACING UNITY THROUGH DIVERSITY AND GAINING STRENGTH THROUGH ADVERSITY. After a helluva time of trying to gather willing teachers from various schools to participate and four months after the plan was set into motion, the schools that REALLY committed opened their classrooms up for me to come in and begin the task of ACTUALLY DOING THIS PROJECT. I decided that Creative Journal Expressive Arts was the way to get their creative juices flowing. We started with a reflective activity. I asked the students to journal about the following question: IF YOU HAD NOTHING STANDING IN YOUR WAY OR HOLDING YOU BACK, HOW WOULD YOU USE YOUR HANDS TO UPLIFT YOUR LIFE, YOUR FAMILY'S LIFE, YOUR COMMUNITY, YOUR WORLD?

(One students example of the reflective activity)

After seeing the quality of reflections coming from the students, I decided to not insert my ideas into their creative process. I proceeded as a workshop facilitator, designing exercises that encouraged the sharing of ideas between students and they voted, as a whole, on the elements that they wanted to express...and the ideas that they came up with collectively were far richer than any ideas I had coming into this process. My only function has been to put their ideas together cohesively for them to vote on. The next step is to figure out how to inspire them paint the murals together with openness and mutual respect. I'm sure the CJEA tools will be instrumental in this phase as well.

This has been one of the most educational and enriching experiences that I have been involved with and it has shown me that I want to design a profession where I can help people (families, schools, businesses, churches, etc.) to incorporate the art of collaboration into their lives. We are doing it all the time anyway, so why not be intentional about it.