Recyclable Dress

Hello my name is Shakeelah Finney. I am a junior attending Science Leadership Academy. For our Advanced art benchmark the entire class was given the assignment of making art out of recyclable material. After scanning through a variety of ideas i had finally chosen the recyclables jean and Capri-sun pouches. With these two elements i would create a dress.
The process for creating the dress was elongated but once i started i didnt stop until it was finished, meaning late nights or should i say early mornings. I would sometimes stay up until 5 am because i was so eager to get the dress done, which meant i was tired when school was in session, but in the end it was all worth it.
This was probably one of my most amusing benchmarks of my entire high school life. Mainly because it was something i got to choose and play around with. The possibilities for what to do were endless. I could've made anything. Something that described myself as a person. It wasnt like any other project where your told you have to do a report on this person, 12-font, double space, 2 pages. This benchmark spoke freedom.
This allowed everybody to be themselves and speak on things that mattered to them. Everybody had so many ideas which was evident at the finish of the benchmarks. The diversity was worth the world. We went from a tv out of cardboard box to a peace symbol made with condom wrappers or what not. And the meaning behind the art pieces were priceless. It spoke a lot on the class as a unison.
The most exciting part of the benchmark for me would have to be seeing everybody in action. Watching them as they build their art pieces and explain the meaning behind it. It proves that teens also think about the world around them. Not all the negative stuff you hear in the media or on the news.