ST JOHNSBURY, VERMONT, USA
100CAMERAS X CORNERSTONE SCHOOL
100cameras X Cornerstone School is a part of a 8 class course that is custom designed by 100cameras to equip passionate creatives with the tools to empower kids in a community they care about with the opportunity to learn how to process their stories and create change. Pictured here are 100cameras students during the course.
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
100cameras X Cornerstone School represents 2 programs that took place in St. Johnsbury, Vermont in partnership with Cornerstone School, an independent day facility providing educational and therapeutic services for students in grades K - 8.
Cornerstone serves students with emotional disabilities, learning impairment, specific learning disabilities, among other health impairment and developmental disabilities for students that would most thrive outside of a traditional classroom setting. The mission of the school is to build a safe, trusting and responsible community in which students are encouraged to take risks, rise to academic and social emotional challenges, fulfill community expectations and support each other. And ultimately, to embrace strengths and to acknowledge struggles as we join with youth, families, and communities to promote growth and healing.
“Students attending the Cornerstone School have all been referred by their local school districts due to a lack of progress/success in the public school setting. The students have all experienced significant childhood trauma, sometimes the trauma is on-going. The experiences manifest in acting out behavior, sometimes aggression or violence, and significant gaps in learning. The goal at Cornerstone is to help students develop positive and appropriate means of expressing their feelings,” reflects Jeanne Graham, Program Director.
“I believe that giving the students the tools and guidance along with instilling them with the freedom of expression it has to opportunity of open up a brand new world to them. It has the ability to provide them with an outlet for expression and communication that many of them have not known or truly experienced. I believe that by giving the students this opportunity, it will also given them an increased sense of self and confidence in owning their experiences and their feelings, allowing them to become more connected to their own being.”
“Many of the students here struggle daily just to get through, and positive interactions and experiences in social/school settings are often difficult. Managing, expressing, and navigating their emotional load in a healthy and appropriate way can be challenging. I believe that the opportunity to be out taking pictures of what they see and what they like is a healthy and positive outlet for many of them, which they don't always have many of. Most, if not all, showed a fair amount of resistance initially, though some come around, and the joy and intrigue finds its way to them. For those that do let that guard down for a minute and open up to the possibility, they find something new they never knew they could enjoy. When this happens, you can see it in them when it’s time for class to begin, and they have their camera in their hands. You see it when they are coming back to you after almost every shot to show you and to see what you think, when you are able to see them really working at different ideas that you have talked to them about. Or when you ask them why they like their own picture, or what they wanted to share and they are able to describe with the ‘feeling’ words that they learned during the program exactly what they wanted the viewer to see or feel; and it is perfectly visible just as they wanted it,” reflected Tom Parisella, Teacher and Program Educator.
The students in both programs showed up with commitment, courage to lean in, and creativity. See their perspectives and celebrate how they see the world!
“I watched one student begin the class and show little interest initially and then become the most engaged student in the program. I was able to watch the student grow and become very thoughtful and mindful of what pictures they were taking. I was able to be apart of the process where they were asking themselves questions of what they wanted to shoot, what feelings they wanted to feel - ‘Do I want more color or less color, in focus or a little out of focus?’.
Experiencing a student go through these changes was pretty wonderful, and then once it was over and the weather began to turn to summer time, having that same student say that they wished they were still in the program because spring and summer were so beautiful and they wanted to shoot the budding flowers and trees.”
MEET THE STUDENTS
“I believe that by giving the students the tools and guidance along with instilling them with the freedom of expression, it has to opportunity of open up a brand new world to them. It has the ability to provide them with an outlet for expression and communication that many of them have not known or truly experienced. I believe that by giving the students this opportunity, it will also give them an increased sense of self and confidence in owning their experiences and their feelings, allowing them to become more connected to their own being.”
ABOUT THE PROGRAM LEADERS
Heather Fagans. “As an artist myself, and having worked as a classroom counselor for years now, I have concluded that the arts are intrinsically an important piece of expression and cultural integration. There are so many avenues and forms of art to explore. Exposing kids to training in different art categories helps their creative process immensely. Helping kids explore their world and expression through photography is a tool that not only will be useful creatively but also useful in a practical way as the digital world grows more to include a demand for visual marketing,” reflects Fagans.
Tom Parisella.“Photography is a passion of my own. It is a way for me to capture the moments and feelings in time that only exist in that one moment. The pictures we take are imbedded with our thoughts and our feelings of that moment and the scene becoming a reflection of ourselves. Our photography becomes, in some ways, a timeline of our self, of our own journey through the physical life we travel as well as our emotional and spiritual journeys; capturing the triumphs, the defeats, our joys and our sadness,” reflects Parisella.
STUDENT IMAGE GALLERY
“Many of our kids have struggled with being successful in a public school setting. Many have experienced hardships that kids of the same age have not experienced.
I think this curriculum will open up avenues of expression and possibly inspire interests they may not have known they possess. Overall this builds self-esteem and gets the population we work with involved in the community in a more positive way.”
Follow us on social media to see images from the field as captured by the 100cameras X Cornerstone School team and the student photographers.