March 14th, 2018. The National School Walk Out to take a stand with Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. I remember leaving during the middle of my math class to participate with students all across the country. I felt a sense of unity and that change would hopefully be made. It was an incredible thing to be a part of. Ever since the Greensboro sit-ins in 1960, student activism has become more and more evident as a profound amount of senseless violence has occurred in our country and world.

After choosing the memoir Glimmer of Hope to read for class, I started to really open my eyes and take in the rawness and realness behind student activism. When the Parkland shooting occurred, the students at Stoneman Douglas were determined to make sure that their school shooting would be the last. Thus, I wanted to portray the concept of student activism through the years when I began planning the design for my mashboard.

When I think of student activism, the image that immediately pops into my head is the idea of large crowds of students holding signs and posters, pumping their fists in the air and fighting for change. So, that’s the exact design I used for the background of my poster. I knew that using that design would be sure to catch the eye of at least some GBN students, but I still felt like I was missing the true essence of catching the general eye. I decided to cover the whole posterboard in neon orange, pink and yellow posterboard so that it would be bright and vibrant and easily catch an eye.

Using the protesting design, I created four hands holding four signs and put all of my quotes on those signs. That made it much more exciting and intriguing to read, rather than just writing my quotes in random places all over the posterboard. Also, since I chose to handwrite all of my quotes instead of typing them, I needed to make sure that I logistically put them in an appealing place while also writing big enough to be read from 6 feet away.

After finishing with all of my quotes, I had to really think about what pictures I wanted to use to fill in the remaining space. Right in the center of the poster, I taped an infographic that says “SHOOTINGS IN YOUR AREA? feel free to take 1!” with little slips of paper on the bottom that say “thoughts” and “prayers”. The reason that I put that infographic in the front and center of the poster is that it’s really the idea that I, as well as many other student activists, want people to take away from shootings and gun violence. This picture also ties along with the quote I wrote that says, “…and thoughts and prayers will be tossed around like a common cold at a state college.” After a shooting happens, we give our thoughts and prayers and forget about it until it happens again. It’s an endless cycle that should be put to a stop.

To top the poster off, at the top left and bottom right corners I put simple statements that I also want people to take away when they look at my mashboard. I chose to put the statements in the corners so that it would be eye-catching but not take away from the other more important elements. In the top left, I chose to put “WALK OUT” because the main idea of student activism is to walk out and make the changes that we wish to see in the world as a generation. The other statement “STAND UP” was chosen because participating in student activism is by no means an easy thing to do. It’s important to emphasize and realize that in some cases of student activism, teens are risking their lives and putting themselves out on the line to stand up for what they believe in.

When making this poster, the thing that I want people to take away the most is how our generation is going to change the future, and it all begins with student activism.