Week 1- INTROS

This week we started the 1SOUL youth apprenticeship with students from El Puente Academy. Their names are Danny and Meagan. Both are juniors at El Puente, who have big aspirations of getting involved with social issues and their community.

The first week was basically about introductions and getting to know what they want to gain out of this experience and I look forward to learning from them just as much as they will be learning from me. Danny has aspirations of starting his own business and Meagan wants a career in fashion. Danny comes from my hood, Bushwick, Brooklyn. I'm especially glad we met and he can see how someone from his own neighborhood made something out of nothing(INVENTOS). Meagan comes from the South Side of Williamsburg. Its good that she can see us operating and doing community outreach right here in her area. We talked about their familes, their peers, their community, and their school. I wanted to make them as comfortable as possible.

I started off by telling them about 1SOUL and introducing them to the Silkscreening process. From burning the screens, printing and the different kinds of inks. They both printed up some tees all on their own, and got the hang of it pretty fast.

Next I wanted to get them started on their brand. So they started to brainstorm about names, words, and images. They came up with a bunch of phrases and words they wanted to depict in their brand. Some things they came up with were community, freedom, youth, unity, el puente, etc.

They came up with a lot of good ideas for image ideas using bridges and figures of youth, they were able to search thru images on the web and put together their ideas from there. They are very creative, but I don't think they know how creative they are yet. We had a great start this week, I'm getting to know these kids and learn exactly where they are coming from. In turn, these experiences will allow me to help guide them throughthis internship process.

This is only the beginning...