Students Create Community Portraits in GSE Class Project

Upstairs, students pored over work amid study carrels and neatly organized shelves.

Downstairs, students pored over work amid old jeans, magazines and candy wrappers strewn on the floor.

The scene: Gutman Library at the Graduate School of Education (GSE), where students participating in a class project, "Where did you get your eyes? (a celebration of the HGSE community)," produced several portraits.

The 24 GSE students created their projects for a GSE class entitled "Media and Technology: Expressions of Self, Community and Culture." The exhibit of projects opened Monday night and was taken down Tuesday.

Students were asked to create a portrait of a member of the GSE community and justify why their subjects are part of the community.

"The project is a parallel to what the class is about...we have the students who are developing these media portraits and simultaneously the class itself is dealing with their own issues of self, community and culture," said Lecturer on Education Wendy J. Richmond, who co-teaches the class with fellow Lecturer on Education Ceasar L. McDowell.

Students chose a variety of subjects and media. Viewers moved from living room set-ups to a sandbox to video presentations.

One student did a portrait of a classmate. Others portrayed children they worked with in GSE programs.

In one room a GSE graduate's job hunting station was re-created, complete with a computer, map, books and open bag of Twizzlers.

Samantha Vincent created a video portrait of Mary Mahoney, the cashier at the GSE cafeteria.

"What I was trying to do was bring out a story of a person that many people see every day but overlook, and I was trying to bring out her story and celebrate her life," Vincent said.

Public response was positive on Monday morning.

"It's really creative," said Shane A. McGregor, a GSE student who is not in the class. "It's a unique look into people's lives and the different objects that represent them and how they can be personalized."