Aneesa Garcia

“The John F. Kennedy Jr. School- Public School 721Q in Queens NY, will invite an art teacher/therapist to work with students in the Social Emotional Learning Club so that they can work on various projects each bi-week. The club will achieve this by creating monthly artwork murals, mindful art, calming/sensory corners, mood meters, empathy/kindness jars, among other projects connected to the SEL needs of our school. The art therapist/teacher and select staff will purchase materials to work with students in the SEL Club in order to create these projects to be displayed in a central Social Emotional Learning room. They will decorate the room at the main site building and celebrate in the hallways and in classrooms each month that students create a project. There will be a student council, including a president, vice president, Treasurer and secretary for this club. The members of the club will include English Language Learners and various students with special needs and disabilities as well as young women of color. The culminating display of work created will be open to parents to view during walk throughs and Family Fun Night events. One of the events will be a Spring mindful artwork display of students SEL related artwork where parents and the community will visit and view the projects in the SEL room. This project based initiative at our school will help to promote empathy, equity and relationship building among students with severe disabilities and those who are higher functioning in our school community overall.”