Lowell — A tapestry hanging in Lowell High School holds the dreams of more than 4,000 students and community members who contributed to the pieces of pink fabric in 2021.
Now, students from Uruguay have added their own words to the piece, with help from Lowell Spanish 4 students.
“We tied their hopes and dreams with our hopes and dreams,” said sophomore Sawyer Hoff.
Spanish and art teacher Sarah Ellis led the connection across continents after meeting the girls during a field experience to Uruguay in June. Ellis visited schools in the South American country as part of the Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms Program. She shared with students at the all-girls boarding school about the Lowell community and Pink Arrow Pride, the annual effort to raise awareness and funds for cancer treatment and a cure.
Ellis then invited them to write down their own dreams on Pink Arrow T-shirt material she had brought with her, to add to the tapestry. Titled “Dreams Intertwined,” it was originally created for ArtPrize.
‘Their hopes and dreams were a lot more simple than ours.’
— sophomore Sawyer Hoff
This fall, Ellis’ Spanish 4 students tied the girls’ pieces to the tapestry. They also recorded a video for the Uruguayan students, talking about their own dreams and reading back the dreams the girls had written in Spanish. They shared the video on Instagram.
The girls at Escuela No. 15, ages 4-12, live in a rural part of Uruguay and come from troubled homes. They live at the school during the week and often cry when they have to leave on weekends, Ellis said.
Knowing the school was the girls’ support system, Ellis recalled explaining to them how people support one another in Lowell by lifting one another up when they are having a hard time. “One way we can do that is by recognizing each others’ hopes and dreams,” she said.
Sawyer and Lowell High School juniors Emmett Schaedig and Bryce Mervau, who contributed to the tapestry as middle-schoolers, said they were struck by what the girls had written. They wished for health, good luck and safety.
“Their hopes and dreams were a lot more simple than ours,” Sawyer said
“I feel like we take things for granted. Knowing this now, it’s like we should be more thankful for the things that we have,” Emmett said.
Local, Global Connections
Through the Fulbright program, Ellis is involved in global education and awareness. A key part of her studies includes incorporating at a local level the 17 sustainable development goals established by the United Nations in 2015. Goals include reduced inequalities, gender equality, and eliminating poverty and hunger.
While in Montevideo and Maldonado and other regions of Uruguay for three weeks, Ellis visited seven schools with a cohort of 17 Fulbright scholars to learn about school and create connections. Ellis said students at the girls’ school had a donkey, chickens, and ample time for play. They performed a skit and sang for the visitors.
“The trip in itself was the culmination of a year’s worth of learning that I did with this cohort and with a larger Fulbright cohort,” Ellis said. She also took part in a 10-week intensive course and a symposium in Washington, D.C.
“The icing on cake was to see global education in action and create real-life connections. An overarching goal of mine is to be able to bring back a little bit of that to teachers here.”
Ellis’s capstone project was the creation of a website for teachers to make their own connections global and connect with the 17 sustainable development goals, including quality education for all.
Read more from Lowell:
• From organization to district & vice versa, partnership supports community
• Organization works to bring affordable housing to community
