We thought this photo of Sara was very creative and showed her shy and thoughtful personality. It was shot through the fence of the garden at the Buen Pastor.

Last night our class of girls put on an art and media show with Katie Clancy at the Buen Pastor! Check out this photo of some of the group proudly displaying their work! t

Check out our latest video! We have had some technical difficulties with the Adobe Premiere program so this video does not have the audio recording of the girls.  We hope to post the video with their photos AND their audio in sometime in the next month.  Enjoy!!

Luz Elena is a bubbly, energetic, outgoing young woman who has the makings of a natural-born leader. She’s intuitive, smart and socially aware.

Here are two samples of photos Luz took, or her partner took of her during our Essence Project. Both are typical of Luz as she loves stars (note the earing) and she also tends to carry a mirror with her when she is outside of the Buen Pastor.

We will keep posting more updates soon so please keep checking back here!

Like all the girls in our class, Vanesa LOVES taking photos and self-portraits. We encouraged the girls to take pictures in new ways, being as creative as possible and not posing in their usual ways for snap shots (cool hand signs and upward gazes). Vanesa and her photo partner did a great job of playing around with patterns and light and here are 2 examples of their work. Enjoy!

Check out our latest video below! We are in the process of editing our final project, “The Essence Project”, and wanted to give you a preview of what we are working on. We hope to debut the finished video project this week so please keep checking back here to view samples of the girls photos and the final project. Enjoy!

Here, Dani poses with the Virgin de Guadalupe statue in the courtyard of the Buen Pastor. Dani is an incredible young woman…kind, smart, thoughtful and fun. We think there is something magical about this picture and love it in color and black and white. Click on the image to view it large and let us know what you think by writing us a comment! Thanks!

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For our Essence Project, Joana and her partner captured this photograph of Joana at the very end of the class. They had already taken many pictures but almost as an afterthought, as they were walking into the Buen Pastor from the church courtyard, Joana asked her partner to take this photo with the reflection of her face in the door. We think it’s a beautiful image.

Which do you prefer…the color image or the black & white? Write us a comment and let us know what you think!

As we continue to work on our projects and classes we want to also share with you some of the photos that came out of our Essence Project with the girls. Please keep checking back here to see more. We will be posting one or 2 pictures per post in the days that come.

Sara and Marla were paired up for the Essence Project. Look closely and you will see that by chance, Marla wore a shirt that said "Angel", while Sara wore a shirt that said "Chica Mala" (bad girl).

Marla and Sara pose outside the Buen Pastor. Guanajuato is seen in the distance.

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Daneli photographs the little girls jumping rope.

We’re nearing an end with our Adobe Youth Voices project with the girls at Buen Pastor. Last Thursday, we reviewed what we had done and what we have left to do. We were ready to culminate all that we had learned together and to let the girls share their stories by putting together interviews, photography, video, and recordings in a DVD.   This week, we needed to decide what story they would tell.

We divided the girls into two groups to discuss these questions:

1. What is it like having two homes: Buen Pastor on the weekdays and family on weekend?
2. What is great and not so great about being a girl?
3. What kind of person would you like to be when you’re an adult?

Marla shares wonderful insight

The girls responses were playful at times, and thoughtful at others. For the most part, the girls enjoyed having two homes.  They thought it gave them an advantage in that they met more people and learned how to take care of themselves. “The madres teach us everything so when we leave our families, we can take care of our own homes” said one girl.  Surprisingly, some of the girls thought they had more freedom at Buen Pastor and were more restricted at home.

What’s great about being a girl, specifically, a teenage girl:

• Well, you don’t have to pay bills yet.
• You’re not old yet.
• You can still act like you’re little.

And not so great?

• Sometimes, girls this age get very upset over nothing.
• You have to be careful not to get in trouble with boys.
• Fitting in.

Carol, understanding adolescence

Admirably, many of the girls expressed an attitude of altruism when they grow up. They want to create shelters for people who have nothing, and make sure nobody goes without food. This was the most popular response.  Other girls thought about their careers and being successful bread winners as adults. “Kind, thoughtful, honest, respectable” were characteristics that many aspired to.

The two groups joined again. We shared responses to get an idea of the story we wanted to tell. Then some of the girls went with Beca to record their thoughts using audio equipment, while Katie and Juanita took the rest of the girls and instructed them to take photos of images that referenced their life at Buen Pastor and the discussion we had just had.  After a bit, the girls swapped audio for photograph, and vice-versa. Finally, in the end, we all came back together and had a lot of fun with the audio equipement. Monica and Daneli thrilled us with their demonic voices and nobody can impersonate an Española better than Vanessa!

Beca recording the girls