Through World Savvy’s Media & Arts Program, students explore global themes like immigration & identity, sustainable

communities, and power in a global society through art & media from a personal, local,

national and global perspective; students then create their own art & media that

reflect their perspectives on these issues.

Students designed the cover of the “green issue” of a fashion magazine incorporating content from units on trash, up-cycling and

environmental justice.

Students created three self portrait stencils: one straight print, one creative free choice

with a background design of choosing, and a third that incorporated the poem students wrote in a World Savvy workshop entitled

“My American Dream”. These poems speak of the challenges they have faced in their lives,

as well as their hopes for the future.

After participating in a World Savvy workshop

on cultural diffusion, students reflected on how cultural diffusion had affected their own lives. What music, food, religion or art was part of their everyday lives yet came from another

culture? Students picked the culture that had the greatest impact on them, and then drew themselves in the traditional clothing of that

culture. Some students chose to do a variation on this project by drawing themselves in the

clothing of their own cultural heritage.

Students examined labels and stereotypes both personally and

with regard to immigrant populations and created their own

“My People Are” poems and self portraits to showcase their own

identity.

Students illustrated their own

migration stories in comic form

Students investigated the relationship between art and advocacy: using art to affect change in communities. First

they explored what makes up their own communities, creating “found art” collages that represent and reflect our home

environments with objects found in those very communities. With the reality of their communities in mind, each student then chose one social (in)justice issue to stand up for and change. To help them do this, they created a Community

Super Hero persona that they became through photography, words and collage. Switching from paint brush to pen, they

then wrote advocacy letters to local congressmen and women, voicing the need for change.

Students created original sculpture from found materials and writing as a way to explore ideas of interdependence in the

environment and our lives. At a later date, they returned to their sculptures to witness

the effects of time and decay.

Students in San Francisco explored green

architecture and what it means to “Go Green” and then designed their own ideal schools with

sustainable resources. They considered earthquake safety, space and capacity

requirements, and a building created with sustainable materials can actually be an

educational tool in itself.