This spring term, the Social Action Leaders (SALs) focused on perspectives; how you see yourself and how other people see you.

What does this mean exactly?

Well, sometimes those two perspectives are different. The SALs team created a mural that included two main components: one silhouette, and one “blob” to represent these different views. The silhouette is covered in adjectives that people may believe about themselves. The words on the blob (which was created to represent the distorted side of how people perceive us) are adjectives that resemble what other people may believe about them.

The piece is strategically placed prominently by the foyer of the school. Students who walk by daily feel a sense of curiosity about the project and each interpret it differently. This has sparked great conversations around the school about self identity. Students have been reflecting on their interpretation of themselves and how it differs from other people’s point of view.

“We talked about the different issues that we saw at Beaver, but again and again, we kept coming back to the idea of perceptions,” says Jessica Ainooson ‘16, member of the Student Action Leaders group at Beaver, about how they came up with the idea. The group decided that an art piece would portray their message in the most effective way. They used their own experiences to inspire the piece. “We wanted to commit to the project by sharing a piece of us with our community. We all agreed that having a personal connection to the art would make it more powerful.” says Ainooson about choosing the adjectives they used on the silhouette and the blob.

The main goal of the project is to bring our community closer. SALs wants people to reflect on themselves and how they see others. Looking forward, they are hoping to create a foundation for future SALs movements.The piece has effectively influenced the Beaver community and the conversations about perception and self-awareness are only growing.

The members of SALs: Justine Hatton, Clara Dinkin, Nichole Irving, Evan Felberg-Bannatyne, Hannah Pelofsky, Lexie Duarte, Arielle Dede, Peter Stack, Mollie Devins, Alea Laidlaw, Amit Nir, and Laurel Sullivan.