1. Letters and Art for Africa
West Auburn High School
Collaboration between
Thomas Parsons, Global Issues teacher and
Nancy Olsten, Language Arts teacher
funded by a grant from the NEA
SA 25-19

2. For Language Arts,
students read “A Long Way
Gone, Memoirs of a Boy
Soldier” by Ishmael Beah.
The book parallels the
stories of students we
would be writing to in
Africa.

3. Students chose quotes and symbols to
illustrate meaningful events in the
book and we posted a “Graffiti Wall” in
the hallway.

5. With help from the art teacher, we built drums
out of PVC pipe and deer hide.

6. Seattle Art Museum – West African
Jewelry Making

7. West African Bling
comes to West
Auburn

8. Seattle Art Museum Field Trip
to tour the African Art Exhibit

12. In October, the Global
Issues class and the Writing
Lab class wrote 22 letters
to African students in
Uganda.
In November, we received
126 back.
Students started a
campaign to involve more
students in writing.
The Pen Pal
Project

13. One of the students
decided to title it
“Make a new homie”
and the signs went
up around school.

14. Writing Lab Students made persuasive
posters to urge other students to
participate

16. African students sent back artwork
with their letters in the spring

19. John Hayden of
JAMTOWN came to
our school and held
a rhythm event to
teach students how
to play their drums.

20. Africa visits Auburn

21. After hearing Calvin
speak, ten students
signed up to share
ideas on what they
can do to help the
students in Uganda
with the goal of
taking the project
into the next school
year.
We took the letter
writing project into
all classrooms by the
end of the year.

22. Students decided to sign one of the drums they made, and send
it back to their friends in Africa with Calvin.

23. Feedback
Hi,
I want to confess that I was reluctant to start the letter project. Nothing specific except maybe how much I'd have to sell it to my
kids. Right now every student (8) is writing a letter and it is silent. The video was excellent, but the letters from Ugandan
students sold it to my homeroom. Thank you for this gift.
Sincerely,
Larry Laush
West Auburn High School
253-931-4990
Dear Nancy;
Greetings to you and trust you are well;
Just wanted to say thank you for what you doing for Pilgrim and inviting me to speak in your class; that was wonderful and I very
much enjoyed it;
We are all very grateful and appreciate you very much and look forwards to working more with you.
Bless you and thanks again.
--
Calvin Echodu.|The Executive.
Pilgrim Africa.
4401 2nd Ave. NE, Suite 204 Seattle, WA 98105. [p] 206.706.0350 | www.pilgrimafrica.org|
-a candle loses nothing by lighting another candle. - Erin Majors.