Student Experience: Art Fundamentals Class, Dennis Chavez Calderon
The following is a transcript of Dennis’s presentation at the Service-Learning Symposium May 10, 2023
Hello, my name is Dennis. I’m a Junior 2, Nursing major with a minor in graphic design. This semester I took Honors Art Fundamentals with Lynn Sondag. Part of the class consisted of us applying art to the community. So, this being said, my classmates and I engaged with Davidson Middle School, DXL (after school) program, which is about 10 minutes away from campus. The population of students at Davidson is mostly Latinx students, many of whom are newcomers speaking only Spanish having recently emigrated to the U.S. from Latin American countries, specifically Guatemala and Mexico.
The after-school program’s purpose is to encourage and challenge these students to acquire important, academic and social emotional skills, while also encouraging them to embrace their background and their culture. We would go on Wednesday afternoons to do different art projects with them, almost all connecting to their identity.
There was one student that I came to form a friendship with during my time. Making conversation with her reminded me of my younger self a little bit, with family. Having a great impact on her life and the way she views the world as well. I think she may have felt the same because my table mates and I gave her the opportunity to share pieces of her life with us through her art, and her connection to us grew. Art is what brought us together in the first place, but similarities in culture and life experiences was what brought us closer, it’s the same with any friendship, really. You find people that bring you a sense of comfort, of warmth, either through humor or affection or something else. As you share your life experiences with one another, you may find similarities that may bring you even closer.
I do think that art has a way of speaking to us that can lead to further connection and that’s what many of the students at Davidson Middle School found to be true. Many would come with their friends, but would mingle around the room to talk to other students and compliment each other’s artwork or laugh together about something that the other had done, you would sometimes find them competing over who would get what stencil for what project. I would sometimes just sit there and be comforted by their interactions.
As we get older, we tend to push aside art because we’re busy and don’t have the time to add one more thing to our daily life. However, these middle schoolers that I had the pleasure of meeting made me realize just how much art is an important aspect of our social emotional health as people. They continuously would make it possible to come to our program because they enjoyed it because it brought them a sense of comfort to be there. Art can be a home too. Thank you.
