Workshop with Local Color SJ- Ms. Brandi Fabricius

At Independence, students are exposed to amazing opportunities thanks to our dedicated teachers and program coordinators. Recently, Ms. Brandi Fabricius’ art students participated in a 2-day workshop with artists from Local Color SJ! Established in 2015, Local Color is a non-profit organization whose mission is to “build equitable pathways for creatives to thrive!” Learn more about Local Color’s Color Me Rad Youth Programming through this short documentary. 

Participating in art offers students numerous benefits, including enhanced academic performance, cognitive development, and socio-emotional growth. Additionally, arts education fosters critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills, contributing to overall cognitive development. Involvement in the arts enhances self-awareness, self-confidence, and social engagement. 

Incorporating art into education not only enriches students' academic and personal lives, but also fosters a more innovative and inclusive community.

Asian-American Literature and History Festival- Mr. Fernandes and Ms. Rose

“[Ms. Rose] gave us the opportunity to attend Asian-American literature lunches, which we could make up late assignments and missing work. We would gather and discuss several works of Asian American literature. I appreciated the way she introduced us to work that we wouldn’t necessarily explore in our normal English classes. It gave us an extremely important outlet to talk about important issues that affected Asian-American communities– assimilation, conflict between eastern and western values, and other cultural issues that surrounded the Asian-American experience and how certain authors utilized those issues and expressed them through literature.”  ~Eli Obero, Sophomore