Songwriting and graphic design workshops wrapped up Wednesday, June 13 as Martha’s Table Collegiate Academy teens successfully completed the Project ID | Who Am I? Campaign projects.

Project ID | Who Am I? is a campaign designed by MTCA workshop facilitators in which teens are challenged to answer questions about themselves in the areas of their personal, professional, emotional, social and ethical identities. The hope is that this self-evaluation will lead to students becoming more aware of who they are and thus encourage them to make healthy decisions that are a reflection of the person they discover themselves to be.

For the last six weeks, teens worked to create t-shirt designs to press onto t-shirts for the graphic design workshop and a campaign song with an accompanying music video for the songwriting workshop.

On Mondays and Wednesdays, students were taught the principles of graphic design as well as the basics of Adobe Photoshop. Then on Tuesdays and Thursdays, students explored the elements of a well-structured song and developing a video treatment.

The students spent many hours working in Photoshop and in the Martin Luther King Library music studio to complete each project by their June 12 deadline. National Collegiate Preparatory PCHS junior LaQuasha Fields and her sister NCP sophomore SaQueena Fields say they didn’t mind sticking it out and working until the very end. LaQuasha expressed pleasure with the final products.

“Good things come to those who wait,” said Fields.

SaQueena, who originally signed on to participate in the graphic design workshop, stepped up to fill the need for an additional verse on the campaign song “Be The Artist”. She enjoyed the opportunity to tap into her talents.

“I think creativity comes from within you,” said SaQueena.

Graphic design workshop facilitator John CaHill says although the task was challenging for the students, each of them took pride in their work.

“Overall, I believe that the campaign went really well. I was excited to see how the skills they were learning began to spark creativity in the students. Some of the students really grabbed the ball and ran with it, so to speak,” said CaHill. “They took to the concepts well and were able to learn more both about themselves and about the technical aspects of the project.”  

Teens celebrated their accomplishments Wednesday with a pizza party, movie and showing of their music video and photo shoot pictures.