The Last Week and Saying Farewell
You don’t always know how special a moment is until that moment is over. As I sit in the upstairs loft of a local library, back in my hometown, reflecting on this past summer this is something that I realize all too well. Teaching young girls who are quickly turning into young women has been a valuable experience that has shown me with great certainty, that I want to be an educator.
During the last week of the program, the air was tinged with a tone of hurry and flurry as the girls worked to complete their quilt square projects that would depict scenes from the history of the Mars Hill Anderson Rosenwald School. More than just a simple art project, these girls dived deep into the history of the school and the place that surrounded it. The Rosenwald Schools were a special thing, not just in Madison County, North Carolina, but across the South as well. The Rosenwald Schools was a community effort built by the combined efforts of Booker T. Washington and Julius Rosenwald; two individuals who cared deeply about the education of Black students during the era of segregation. Hundreds of these schools were built across the South usually with the labor and funds from the Black community in those places; although Rosenwald, a philanthropist who was at the head of the Sears company, did much to contribute to the projects. Over the course of two weeks, the girls learned about the history of these schools and met with several of the alumni who graduated from the school, which was in operation until the late 1960s. They then took this learning and applied it to craft a quilt square design, which will be honored by being sewn into a wall hanging which will have a permanent home in the school.
When creating their quilt squares, the girls got very creative. Some of them, like Anna (pictured in the first image) chose to convey the spirit of the school more symbolically. She depicted a sunflower with the names of the families who had attended the school on the leaves. Her own family had been alumni at the school so this project was of particular importance to her. The interns were also encouraged to create squares and some did a more physical representation of the school, as Elyse did in her square (pictured in the second image). Elyse said that she wanted to show the image of the school against the backdrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains to represent the beautiful learning that took place inside the school. Finally, other students such as Kaitlyn made a collage of images with a quote from one of the alumni above it (shown in image three).
The program formally ended on Thursday with goodbyes to the girls and well wishes for the beginning of the school year — the first post-pandemic. I am also happy to announce that my work with PAGE is not over, as I will be working through the year on curriculum development materials and returning next summer as the intern coordinator.
