I was not rushed into making self-improvements. The Smarty Arty program presented me with the opportunity to network and collaborate with girls and boys that share similar interests with me. The fellow students that participated were very friendly and made the virtual space comfortable for me to make that progress for myself. 

The friendly staff as well as other students made me feel comfortable sharing my thoughts, work, as well as ideas. Smarty Arty gave me a new view on activities that I found interest in because at the beginning of the program a dominant interest of mine was storytelling as well as reading. By the time I completed the program, I gravitated towards new activities such as video editing, directing, and advertising. These were subject areas that at the beginning of my summer I never thought I could have succeeded in, but the knowledge and experience motivated me to invest in new ideas involving those activities.

The  Smarty Arty program  offered me an outlet and opportunity to express myself by completing various media art projects. I was recommended to the program by a former employer that thought my interest adequately fit the description of the program. I’ll always be thankful for being given the opportunity to participate in Smarty Arty because it helped me accomplish major goals I wanted to achieve.