Project Updates:

With Do Something, I gained fair coverage in the local news with an article about the $500 grant I received to make Visual Seeing a reality. The external attention gave me an opportunity to consider the deeper potential my project had to grow beyond its original scope, such as it evolving into a digital photography class involving elements of graphic design. As for executing the project, I came prepared each day with a class overview with projects and assignments included of which I handed out to the kids, as well as wrote up a general guideline for that day’s class for me to work with. This worked very well for me and for the students throughout the five weeks. Each class the attendance varied, but the projects were cool, engaging and fun. Since the class met every Saturday for five weeks over the summer, I felt that having a cohesive project as I had originally intended (theme of community, State Street) was distracting from the intermittent times we actually met. Additionally, many of the students I thought would participate in the class did not turn out, and they were the ones I was targeting the most: local street kids whose parents are not regularly involved in pushing extracurricular activities on them. The project gave some kids food for thought that I hope will carry them even further with their own life endeavors. It also put the Library on the map for attracting attention in the visual media via generating interest about my project.