WHEN THE PANDEMIC first started and classes abruptly shifted to distance learning, Fresno High School educator Marina Santos found it hard to read her students’ emotions through a computer screen. It led her to create an art project that lifts their words and experiences.

“We were reading all these stories about transformation, so I decided to shine a light on the students and asked them to share their stories about the pandemic,” says Santos, an International Baccalaureate English teacher and member of Fresno Teachers Association (FTA). “I wanted them to tell their truth.”

Marc Patterson

Santos reached out to her colleagues for support and found a thinking partner in artist-in-residency Marc Patterson, who suggested the image of a butterfly to accompany the students’ words — representing change and growth. This was the birth of Carrying Stories in Fall 2020, a collage project elevating student experiences through art and storytelling.

“Carrying Stories is about the oral traditions of storytelling that we pass down from generation to generation. All of us can express ourselves to shed light on our identity and the lives that we live,” Santos says, noting that it was the perfect avenue during the quarantine. “Everyone was going through the motions and unspoken struggles — when they put it to paper, the students were going through it themselves.”

Santos and Patterson led students through the project entirely on Zoom, splitting the class between the two of them and switching off to cover both the written and visual arts pieces to the assignment. Students were directed to ask someone in their family about a transformational learning experience, such as a time when their education was interrupted. Santos delivered the art supplies (donated by a local business) to the homes of her students who she hadn’t yet met in person. The educators also made videos to show students the process for creating their project.

Using a two-foot by two-foot plywood board, students curated their project by choosing a butterfly design, drawing it, then cutting and pasting colors and textures from magazines and collaging them into the design. They hand-lettered their story around the butterfly, documenting the whole process using Flipgrid.

The first year, students submitted 30 beautifully designed and written stories about personal transformative experiences, including family immigration stories and relatives who died from COVID.

Marina Santos

“The most inspiring transformation was not just their artwork, but their transformation from learner to reader, to writer, and especially to artist during what may become the most challenging experience of their lifetimes, the pandemic,” says Santos.

The finished pieces were so inspiring that Santos felt like they needed to be shared. She set up a pop-up exhibit in town to show the work and invited students and their families. Things went so well that she had the pieces installed in front of Fresno High School and shown at the Fresno County Fair, where an attendee was particularly struck by one piece, offering to buy it. Santos says when the student learned of the interest to buy the work, they wanted the person to have it. To learn that their words and art had meaning to others was special, Santos says.

“My students thrived when they knew there was an audience and a purpose. When people wanted to read their stories, it made them feel heard, seen and important,” she says. “The whole project is a metamorphosis.”

Parent Thea Fabian loves Carrying Stories. The mother of a student who participated in the project, Fabian says the work steps into the space of the power of personal relevance and community engagement.

“It also responds to our need to make school much more than preparing students’ traditional academic metrics and really teaching them how valuable their own life experiences truly are,” she says. “For me, this helps us reach the deeper levels of what it means to actively work toward social justice and anti-racism in school spaces.”

Patterson is pleased to be a part of the program and help students share their voices and experiences.

“Carrying Stories resonated with me in such a big way,” says Patterson, an FTA member. “Their stories are treasures.”

Interest in the project has grown over its three years, with Santos welcoming double the students in 2021 thanks in part to a $2,800 CTA IFT (Institute for Teaching) grant. This year, there are 120 students participating in Carrying Stories, with students writing historical fiction about essential workers who were impacted and had their education transformed. The work is scheduled for presentation in April.

“What does it mean to be essential and who helped us when we needed,” Santos says of this year’s prompt. “It’s important to see our students and meet them where they are. There really is power in a story.”

Students lift voices, connect and inspire

The Carrying Stories exhibit was on display at the Fresno County Fair when a woman burst into tears while perusing the pieces. One of the creations reminded the woman of the story of her mother’s immigration from Mexico as a young girl, and she offered to purchase the artwork. Here is an excerpt of that story, “Teresa” by student Natalia Galicia:

Teacher Marina Santos with Natalia Galicia in 2021.

Fearful of being deported, Teresa’s mother did not send the girls to school. They lived in their uncle’s ranch. All the girls were in one room, while her parents were in another. Then one day her dad and uncle got into a fist fight over unpaid rent.

The conflict was too much to handle at the ranch, so Teresa and her family stayed in a car. Teresa remembered how difficult it was to stay in a car and attend school at the same time. Luckily, her parents moved them into an apartment. Even though it was infested with roaches.

After about a month, Teresa and her family moved to Sanger, California. Her parents and brother harvested fields. Since the family was paid by the bags of fruit they filled, the sisters helped after school even though they struggled in school.

It wasn’t until the family purchased their first house in Fresno that Teresa began to transform into a butterfly. Teresa met a young girl named Maira. Maira would talk a lot to her when they played outside. Teresa practiced English with Maira and pretty soon Teresa flourished like a butterfly escaping a cocoon. When her parents needed to understand bills or medical bills, Teresa translated English to Spanish. When her parents went to school or the hospital, Teresa translated the doctor or teacher’s speech to Spanish. The experience and knowledge enhanced Teresa’s experience in school and at home. Teresa soared through the sky!