"Humans of John Marshall" is a collaboration between myself, Stephaine Glaros (artist/founder of the non-profit Humans of Minneapolis), and my twenty-two upper-level design students at John Marshall High School. Over the course of the semester, Stephanie coached us via Google Meet on portrait skills and how to be better listeners. We secured volunteers to be interviewed and photographed. The students developed critical social and emotional skills of empathy, self-awareness, and teamwork, which fundamentally changed our classroom dynamics. Read more about this project here: https://rpscurriculumandinstruction.weebly.com/tools-tips--tricks/becoming-human
-Lisa Becker, proud teacher at John Marshall High School
Humans of John Marshall
May 2019
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“I had pretty bad anxiety. I was in therapy for eighteen months and it was a really hard process. I felt very alone and it was exhausting to get up every day and go through that. But I came out better than I was before. I came out more self-aware and more personable. I came out being more comfortable with who I am. I'm just better at being me. It doesn't mean that I'm cured, but I'm able to manage it now. People are pretty hesitant to open up about anxiety and depression, and that's understandable. Mental illness is a very hard trap to get out of, but you can do it.”
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“I used to be very depressed and lonely because I was afraid of putting myself out there. No one noticed me. But when I started putting myself out there more, people began to notice my presence. Some people actually thought that I was new to the school this year, which I find really funny since I’ve been here my whole high school career.I like the fact that we as humans are able to grow from our suffering and ultimately surpass it. It’s a beautiful thing to be able to transform and never quite be the same as before. I like that every day when I wake up, I'm able to absorb information, process it, and apply it. Learning and loving people and getting to know others is honestly something that makes me enjoy being alive. It's important that people hold the relationship they have with themselves first. If they don't, then every other relationship they have will be disconnected. Everything starts with self.”
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"I’m trying to work on my confidence because there was a point in my life when I was broken, I had experienced a lot of loss. It takes a lot of strength and time to heal, no matter how hard it is. Whenever I feel down I pray, because I know there’s still hope. I see a lot of people who are upset and depressed, and I feel that as humans, we are supposed to help one another and motivate each other. I just want people to know that the struggle is real and you just gotta keep trying. It’s hard sometimes to wake up with a smile, you either dwell in it or do something about it."
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“I want to be a lawyer because I see a lot of injustice in the world. I read a lot of books and I've seen a lot of movies and sometimes the defendant is guilty, but their lawyer is good, so they get out of prison sooner and that's not fair to the victim. I want to fix that.”
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“I’m one of the captains of the track team this year. I’ve been doing track since seventh grade. It’s very fun. It keeps me going. When I do sports, it motivates me to go to school because if you don’t do good in school, you can’t do sports. If you got an F, they’re not gonna let you on the field. I guess sports is my happy place.”
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“My goal is to graduate high school. Right now I’m mainly focusing on keeping my grades up. I haven’t thought that much about college yet, which I should.”
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“People think I’m always happy, but I’m not because, you know, stuff happens. People take me for granted because I put them before myself sometimes, so they forget that I’m a person, too.”
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“A lot of people come to me for advice, or to rant, or for emotional stability. I'm always willing to help, but I need help sometimes, too. I'm not a robot, I have feelings.”
“My mom had to raise us by herself because my biological dad was never home. He would be out at the bar, drinking. Sometimes he would beat my mom and tell her mean and manipulative things so she’d stay with him. After she had enough, they got a divorce. I never really knew what was going on, but I knew that my mom was happier without him. A year later my mom married a wonderful man who became my stepdad. I call him ‘dad’ because he deserves the label. In August 2017, my mom started acting different. She was tired all the time. She had mood swings throughout the day. I knew something was up, but I didn’t know how to approach her about it. The symptoms got worse and worse. She would call into work and sleep all day. She lost a lot of weight. She was suffering from severe depression. I put my emotions to the side because I knew that I had to be there for my family. I would stay at friends’ houses to get my mind off things. I would tell myself that I was okay, even if I wasn’t. My mom ended up in the hospital for a week. Throughout that week, I had over three anxiety attacks per day. But I didn’t tell anyone because I had to be strong for my mom. After a couple months of therapy, my mom was finally getting better, but I wasn’t. I was miserable. I had all these bottled-up emotions. So my dad took me to therapy and things started to get better. I’m proud to be who I am because of the the struggles I’ve been through. I have friends that truly care and I’m not afraid to be who I am. I know my worth. And now I’m a senior, ready to graduate. Stronger than ever and ready to take on the world.”
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“I’ve been told I’m intimidating because I’m really quiet. People think, ‘This guy doesn’t want to talk to me.’ But I just don’t like to talk a lot when I don’t know someone because I’m shy. It’d be nice if they kept trying to get to know me instead of trying once and they’re done.”
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“I play lots of sports and I’m proud of that. I play lacrosse, I play soccer. I’ve been boxing for almost two years and I wrestled when I was younger. It helps me relieve stress.”
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“I wish people knew that I’m not scary or mean and that I’m not as intimidating as people think I am.”
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“I’m an artistic person. Right now I’m in Ceramics and I’m working in the auto shop welding things together. I would like to learn how to draw better and paint. I like the calming aspect of art. It opens my mind.”
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What are you most proud of? “Just helping my family and my Mom.” Why is it important to you that you help your mom? “She was the one who gave birth to me, so I just do what I can to help her.”
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“My dream is to make it through college, because no one in my family has been able to. I would be the first out of five kids.”
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“I want to be a doctor for physical therapy. Things that deal with injuries and muscles interest me because I can help other people and myself.”
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“I'm most proud of how far I’ve come from all the struggles that have brought me to where I am now. All the mountains I've climbed, those obstacles are finished.”
“I’m most proud of being brave enough to be my true and authentic self, despite the struggles I’ve faced. I’ve gone through stress that most people my age haven’t gone through. I feel older and don’t get caught up in the drama that many other high schoolers get into.”
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“I’m from Nigeria. I lived in a really big city and then I moved here to Rochester, which is tiny. I had most of my family there and I don't have a lot of family here, so it was difficult to adjust because that's all I knew. But a lot of the things that were normal to me there, I look at now and they seem odd. Different culture, different people. I guess I found a new normal.”
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“I work with Special Ed kids. My goal is to become a Special Ed teacher, because it makes me happy. It's fun and it’s challenging, but it’s more fun than challenging. Keeps me on my toes.”
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“I feel like I’m seen as a nerd. My mom tells me that it isn’t a bad thing and that I’m knowledgeable, but I don’t like to be seen that way. I don’t want to be seen like I’m different.”
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“Thinking about the reason I go to school gets me through my day. I’m striving for my future and the end result that I want. So when I’m in class thinking, ‘Ugh I hate this class,’ I remind myself that if I don’t get through this, than I can’t do what I want to do, which is something in the medical field. In order for me to do that, I’ve got to be on my A-game and keep striving no matter what.”
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“Everyone knows me as an athlete, so not many people know the deep down parts of who I am. I care a lot about other people, but I don’t show it because I put up a facade of being hard. So I'm trying to bring out the fact that I'm a creative person, I do art. I'm trying to get myself to an equilibrium where I'm not an imposing figure, but I’m also not weak in my presence.”
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“People in high school don't expect to become parents. I don't really know what happened between my mom and my biological father. Like, what happened when she told him she was pregnant? I don't ask many questions, but I'm obviously curious. He had a choice. Maybe he didn’t think he was the best person for us. So maybe he was saving us from himself. I used to get mad about it. I used to be really embarrassed. People would ask about my parents, and I'd be uncomfortable answering. I didn't think that anyone else was in that position. So I never really talked about it because I thought people were going to judge me for it. But there are people out there who grow up with no parents at all. My mom and her husband and my grandparents and my uncles are the people I rely on. If my biological father had been involved, I wouldn't have been able to build such close relationships with all of them. And as a single parent, my mom was able to move to a bunch of different places with me to have different experiences. In New York City, every weekend we'd go shopping and we’d have girls’ days all the time. We’d just walk around Brooklyn, without a destination. I used to feel sorry for myself. I would be like, ‘I shouldn't be in this position.’ But I don't really think about it anymore. I focus on what I’ve got. The family I have. Honestly, I feel sorry for him. He's the one that missed out on having a daughter.”
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“On Saturdays and Sundays, I teach kids Arabic. I feel proud when they get a good understanding of the language. The excitement on their faces gets me through my day.”
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“Even if we like different things, that doesn't mean we can’t be friends. Friendship is based on personality. We don't have to like the same things to be friends.”
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“What gets me through my days is a positive attitude. I think of good ways to compliment people, like telling them that their haircut is good.”
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“I’m a huge physics nerd. I want to work at NASA because space is beautiful and mysterious. I'm passionate about the unknown.”
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“My goal is to start a non-profit organization that provides clothes to young women who are homeless. I’m really passionate about fashion and I feel bad seeing people who don’t have money and are struggling. When they don’t have the clothes that other kids at school have, they feel like, ‘Oh, I’m not like the other kids.’”
This project was not possible without support and funding from the Rochester Public School Foundation, Rochester Community Education Advisory Council, and Mayo Clinic Community Engagement. I'm especially grateful for the support of the administration and staff at John Marshall.