Foster High School: Stories of Arrival - Jack Straw Cultural Center

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Stories of Arrival: Youth Voices is a community partnership project between Foster High School in Tukwila, Jack Straw Cultural Center, the Institute for Poetic Medicine in Palo Alto, CA, and KBCS 91.3 FM.

Foster High School is the only high school in the most linguistically diverse school district in the nation, according to The New York Times. The students are immigrants and refugees from across the globe. All have left behind members of their family on their journey here. They will most likely be the first in their families to graduate from high school.

Poet and project director Merna Ann Hecht, ELL teacher Carrie Stradley, and Jack Straw’s team of artists work with Foster High School English Language Learners, helping them tell their stories in English through poetry. Jack Straw’s vocal coaches help students read their poems out loud in the classroom. The students then record their poems in the Jack Straw studios, where they receive individual vocal coaching, provide each other with feedback, and help the engineers with the recording process.

“The privilege of observing the vision and creativity of these young people and understanding first-hand how much they have to contribute to all of our lives has been a source of inspiration to me.

-Merna Hecht

“Through the project I have witnessed my students grow in their willingness to share of themselves, in their command of the English language, and in their ever-evolving identities of themselves in the landscape of a new country.”

-Carrie Stradley, ELL Teacher, Foster High School