‘A great opportunity’: High school artists create mural in Elgin through internship program
Three young artists attending high school in Elgin Area School District U-46 got a brush with real-world experience this summer through an internship offered by the Alignment Collaborative for Education.
Larkin High School students Avrie Lilly, 18, and Malcolm Wilson, 17, both incoming seniors, and soon-to-be junior Gia Mangriotis, 16, from Bartlett High School, designed and painted a mural on a “eyesore” storage trailer outside the Taylor YMCA in Elgin.
ACE Executive Director Nancy Coleman said it was the first visual arts internship the organization has offered.
“We’ve got health care, manufacturing, architecture, civil engineering, police and fire. We’ve got everything,” Coleman said. “When we got a call for some kids to do some artwork on this eyesore of a trailer, we said, ‘Why don’t we make it a formal internship?’”
The Alignment Collaborative for Education has 242 students from four area school districts working in internships this summer. Fifty-five different organizations hosted the interns, and each student is paid.
The internships are either fully paid by the company or subsidized through funding from grants and donors received by ACE.
“It was over a $250,000 investment by the community and schools in this program in these kids (this summer),” Coleman said.
The mural was unveiled on Monday. About 50 campers from the Taylor YMCA got to lend a hand, literally, by getting their hand painted and then leaving a print on the sides of the mural.
The interns each submitted a concept design for the mural. Wilson’s was run up the chain to the YMCA national office before ultimately being selected.
“It was kind of unreal when I got the email saying it was chosen and to find out my design is going to be memorialized on this mural,” Wilson said. “I get self-conscious about my art a lot, so that was really reaffirming.”
In addition to the experience and academic credit, the three got guidance on building their portfolios and websites and help designing business cards.
“It was a great opportunity,” Lilly said. “I didn’t even know we had internships in the district before this.
“I feel way more prepared for college and looking for freelance work,” he said.
ACE works with leaders and businesses from 11 communities — in partnership with Elgin Area School District U-46, Community Unit District 300, Central Unit District 301 and St. Charles Unit District 303 — to deliver a qualified future workforce.
“Having this experience is really going to help a lot, career-wise,” Wilson said.