BUFFALO, N.Y. — Take a look at the faces on a new West Side Buffalo mural. They are Buffalonians who students at Lafayette International High School selected as changemakers.
The students wheat-pasted portraits on a Five Points district building as part of Agents of Change. It was quite a learning experience for the students.
"We started with a question: Is the world getting better, or is it getting worse?" Lafayette teacher Melissa Meola Shanahan said. "And not surprisingly, just like the rest of the world answers, about 60 percent say it's getting worse.
"But if we take the long view, 250 years long view, we see that actually, the world is getting better in marked, important areas. And we said, 'Well, how and why is it getting better?' And it's because of the work that people do every day to improve the lives of others."
Those individuals are celebrated on the mural.
On June 5, students from Lafayette High capped their project with a public reading at Torn Space Theater that recognized those individuals.
Those leaders include Pierre Michele, who runs a multi-language program at Houghton College, and Kenny Vargas, the leader of University at Buffalo's Upward Bound program.
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