Zanetta King and Olivia McClendon

New York City, NY

June 19, 2009

Zanetta King and Olivia McClendon are two seniors in the Facing History School's first graduating class. Their film "In My Shoes," which they directed and produced with the Urban Arts Partnership, is a powerful documentary about four teenagers in New York City and their experiences with homelessness. The film premiers at the Youth Producing Change World Premiere at the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival in NYC on June 19, 2009. While their work on "In My Shoes" was remarkable, this project was not the only accomplishment these young women have achieved during their time at the Facing History School (FHS), a small public high school in New York City, which opened in September 2005 with Facing History and Ourselves as its lead partner.

During their four years at FHS, these energetic leaders have transformed into thoughtful young adults, active citizens and powerful voices in their community. They started new clubs, offered their opinions at curriculum development meetings, mentored younger students, and performed at school events. This spring, Zanetta was chosen to be the class valedictorian and Olivia was the recipient of a forty thousand dollar scholarship from the Urban Arts Partnership. Both students give the FHS credit for opening up endless possibilities that have guided them to Smith College, where they will matriculate in the fall of 2009.

Despite their love for FHS, both Zanetta and Olivia will admit that the Facing History School was not their first choice for high school. Olivia was originally hesitant about coming to the school, but she quickly began to see that FHS is "a very warm place. I felt very accepted from day one, and it's been a very close knit school [ever since.]"

Zanetta's experience coming to the school was very different from Olivia's. "I actually got expelled from the school I previously was at in ninth grade. I used to live in Virginia and I came from a school where...I guess they just expected you to mess up. It was a school where we weren't challenged academically, we weren't given any standards. They [the teachers] were always just trying to get you to graduate, but with what foundation?" So, Zanetta explains, "Coming to the Facing History School was a very monumental transition...I felt very accepted the moment I got here."

Zanetta and Olivia have taken the Facing History themes and vocabulary and made them their own. Early on, they learned words like "upstander" and "bystander" and then were given opportunities to choose which role they would fill in their community. Zanetta says "I had many opportunities to be an upstander. At our school, we have a zero fighting policy. Not only if you fight will you get suspended, but also if you watch a fight [and don't do anything safe to stop it] you can be suspended. While I think that can be a little controversial, it helps people understand that you always have the opportunity to stand up for something." For Olivia "just hearing the terms [upstander and bystander] gives you perspective. When you first come to the school, you hear these terms, but what do they mean? We're seniors now, we hear these terms a lot." These words have taught Olivia that she is always making choices; "Even by doing nothing, you are making a choice."

Facing History's case study approach connects historical events such as the Holocaust to moral choices today. Olivia didn't "really digest" her previous knowledge of the Holocaust until she came to Facing History. At FHS, she engaged in daily conversations about the factors that influence peoples' choices, spoke with a survivor and other speakers, and she watched videos that documented the experiences of people in challenging moments of history. Her Urban Arts classes gave her the tools to absorb and reflect upon the dense and emotional history. "You study the Holocaust and do a visual art piece. I created a monument with clay to represent my feelings [about] the Holocaust." Olivia thinks that learning about the Holocaust in more depth "allows people to see that these issues are real. There are people out there who have been involved in these types of events.

Zanetta and Olivia's experiences at the Facing History School were greatly influenced by the school's collaboration with the Urban Arts Partnership, a non-profit that integrates art education into academic classrooms. Both young women have participated in Urban Arts classes as well as interned with the Urban Arts Partnership.

Urban Arts and Facing History and Ourselves are a natural fit, particularly during senior year which includes a yearlong "Choosing to Participate" course during which the students take the civic skills and values they have learned during their four years of Facing History and put them into action. Art integration has allowed Zanetta and Olivia to reflect upon the Facing History curriculum in a creative way, particularly with their film project, "In My Shoes."

Zanetta says: "Facing History has given me such a drive to help other people. That word "upstander" has been so instilled in me. I am constantly looking for ways I can help somebody out or give my voice to something. I plan to keep that in my future. In college I know I'm going to be involved and after college I'm going to be involved. That's one of the things that this school really gets right. It's really teaching you that once you know you have the choice there's no going back. You can't say I didn't know, I didn't know I could help out; I didn't know I had the options. It gives you a new conscience: I should help."

Zanetta has even developed her own definition of what choosing to participate means to her: "Choosing to participate really teaches you to think and act beyond your own understanding, and what that means is you're going to be faced with situations that you may feel like are not relevant to you or your life or you can't make a difference, but we've seen stories...where it's as simple as helping someone with bags or it's as simple as going someplace where you know you're not accepted, but you know you should be accepted. Small decisions like that you don't know the impact it will have so... Choose to participate and you'll get it."

Zanetta King and Olivia McClendon are graduating on June 26th at the Facing History School. They hope to one day start their own school based on what they have learned from Facing History and maybe even to come back and teach at the Facing History School in the future.

Zanetta King and Olivia McClendon

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