Silver Spring school aids budding comic creators
Fourth-grader Diana Franco makes a comic at JoAnn Leleck Elementary School at Broad Acres in Silver Spring during an after-school comics club on Monday. Ivan Mendez has been reading comic books since at least first grade. Through an AmeriCorps program, the fourth-grader at JoAnn Leleck Elementary School at Broad Acres in Silver Spring now is learning to make his own comics. “I like Marvel comics like ‘The Avengers’ and ‘Star Wars,’” Ivan said. “I get to learn how those are made and work on my own comics.” Gregory Silber formed the after-school comics club late last year at the school as a writing enrichment instructor in the AmeriCorps program Project Change. He works with students during school hours on regular writing.
Over the weekend of March 19-21 2015, Jermarkus Booker, Caprecia Camper and Ben Eichberg traveled to Jerusalem to present a snapshot of their work as young leaders fighting the urgent issues of structural racism in American education. Invited by the New Story Leadership, an innovative narrative based conflict transformation program, the three AmeriCorps members were part of the #Encourage Conference, where alums of NSL joined other peace activists to share stories of courage that would send a message of encouragement to a world hungry for hope. Despite the last Gaza war and despite the results of the elections earlier that week, young people from Israel and Palestine and the USA and Ireland were coming together over this special weekend to encourage each other in their struggle for change, and their quest for peace.