On February 10, high school students from WorldOregon's Young Leaders in Action program collaborated with students from Reynolds High School to learn about each others' culture and identity through engaging in a group art project.  

Both groups of students brought a photograph that represents a place that is special to them. Throughout their three hours together, they shared about why those places are special to them, how the images are connected to their identity and culture, and worked together to craft language to describe their images and what they mean to them. Students then devised a plan to create an art piece using these photographs that represents the complex differences and connections between the images represented in their photos. Noticing a theme of "home" in their photos, they settled on using pieces of their photos to make a collage that spells out, "home is where the heart is" (pictured below).

"I found it very valuable to see how images and art can represent people...it was also very valuable to work with other people with very different cultures. To cooperate and create art together was very fun."- YLA participant

"I really liked this. It was really fun, and I met new people... it helped us a lot to know how people think." - Reynolds High School Student 

The students hope to exhibit the completed piece in a local space some time this spring in order to engage the wider community in this discussion and highlight their experience.