T-shirt designed by PATHS more than a fashion statement

Two Fashion Marketing students, Zahra Abukar, a senior at Portland High School, and Taylor Rickett, who attends Windham High School, won first place for their T-shirt project entered into the Maine State DECA Conference, held in early March. DECA is a nonprofit organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for careers and education in marketing, finance, hospitality and management. Zahra and Taylor won in the Community Service Project category.

The T-shirt was designed by students in the Fashion Marketing Program at the Portland Arts & Technology High School to help immigrant students and others feel welcome.

The design on the T-shirt is based on an iconic inspirational image from a World War II poster that showed a woman factory worker rolling up her sleeves and saying, “We Can Do It!”

Jane Krasnow, PATHS Fashion Marketing instructor, said, “After the election and then the travel ban, our class noticed that students were feeling fear and were nervous to even go to school,” Krasnow said. “Seeing this, we decided to do something rather that stay stuck in feeling afraid and insecure.

“So we got some help and put a hijab in place of Rosie the Riveter’s bandana and changed the caption from ‘We Can Do It!’ to ‘We Belong Here!’”

Once the image was designed, Krasnow said, “the class decided to apply for a Painting for A Purpose grant to put this image on T-shirts, hoping that this image and message would impact students who felt marginalized.”

Painting for a Purpose is a local nonprofit organization that brings together artists, parents, students and educators to create and sell original art and objects for the home. The class ended up receiving a $490 Painting for a Purpose grant.

“Now we are at the point that we are going to market the T-shirts and give the proceeds to the Make It Happen! program,” Krasnow said.

Make It Happen!, run by the Portland Public Schools’ Multilingual & Multicultural Center, is a college-readiness and academic success program for language minority students in grades eight through 12. Zahra was helped by the program and wants to give back to it.

Other PATHS Fashion Marketing students also won awards at DECA. Several students are headed to the DECA National Conference on April 25 in California and have started a GoFundMe campaign to help them get there. Their GoFundMe page is http://bit.ly/2nU9z3F.

Details regarding online purchasing of the “We Belong Here!” T-shirts are being finalized. In the meantime, you can purchase T-shirts by calling or emailing PATHS Fashion Marketing instructor Jane Krasnow at krasnj@portlandschools.org or at 874-8165, x334.

Casco Bay High School Honor Roll

The following students at Casco Bay High School were recognized for academic excellence and earned a place on the second trimester honor roll:

Grade 9

High Honors

David Botana, Elsa DiGiovanni, Abigail Dunnigan, Ella Ferguson, Gabriel Gomez, Simon Hale, Khiana Le, Siri Pierce, Isaac Tabb

Honor Roll

Satchel Butterfield, Oliver Compton, William Cunningham, Lucia Daranyi, Arundel Devon, Julie Eglinton, Lorien Fish, Zack Hager, Matthew Hand, Brianna Holston, Elijah Kahn, Justin Kashuba, Khang Le, Isabella Levine, Ochola Lindos, Heros Lunjwire, Chelsea Mauridi, Halim Moldaver, Atak Natali, Kyle Nelson, Abdirazak Omar, Alexander Pariseau, May Paterniti, Johan Sifa-Ramazani, Coburn Sniper, James Taylor, Fiona Twombly-Hussey, Sophie Urey, Hayden Weaver, Elias Zelonish

Habits of Work 

David Botana, Oliver Compton, William Cunningham, Lucia Daranyi, Arundel Devon, Elsa DiGiovanni,

Abigail Dunnigan, Julie Eglinton, Ella Ferguson, Lorien Fish, Gabriel Gomez, Simon Hale, Khiana Le, Isabella Levine, Chelsea Mauridi, Atak Natali, Kyle Nelson, Kelly Nibayubahe, Abdirazak Omar, Alexander Pariseau,

Siri Pierce, Joshua Shunk, Johan Sifa-Ramazani, Isaac Tabb, Sophie Urey.

Grade 10

High Honors

Mouna Abdelkader, Grace Cowie, Anne Dodson, Gabrielle Dumas, Eve Fischer, Evelyn Ford, Noah Gill, Grace Govan, Emma Hersey-Powers, Francesca Houran, Phoebe Kolbert, Yifu Liu, Sophia Nolan, Lucy Oster, Grace Rynkowski, Ava Spach, Liam Swift, Anna Tierney-Fife, Elinor Tierney-Fife, Thomas Victor, Douglas Wagner, Oriana Waldren

Honor Roll

Ava Clifford, Hayden Dearing, Sascha Drice, Frances Eder, Liam Goff, Imtithal Hassan, Joana Izabayo, Jonah Kastelic, Phoebe King, Wesley Miller, Olivia Mitchell, Vincent Mohan, Kenny Mugisha, James Needelman, Chris Nitunga, Samuel Nkurunziza, Jean Ntakiyiruta, Oumalkaire Omar, Anna Power-Rokowski, Justin Reid, Charles Rooks, Aaron Smith, Doki Yanga, Pita Yanga

Habits of Work

Mouna Abdelkader, Justin Anderson, Gwenllian Carhart, Ava Clifford, Grace Cowie, Mason Davis, Hayden Dearing, Grace Deng, Anne Dodson, Sascha Drice, Gabrielle Dumas, Frances Eder, Eve Fischer, Evelyn Ford, Noah Gill, Liam Goff, Grace Govan, Ethan Haapala, Imtithal Hassan, Emma Hersey-Powers, Francesca Houran, Joana Izabayo, Phoebe King, Phoebe Kolbert, Yifu Liu, Chris Nitunga, Samuel Nkurunziza, Sophia Nolan, Jean Ntakiyiruta, Oumalkaire Omar, Lucy Oster, Justin Reid, Charles Rooks, Grace Rynkowski, Ava Spach, Anna Tierney-Fife, Elinor Tierney-Fife, Thomas Victor, Douglas Wagner, Oriana Waldren, Doki Yanga, Pita Yanga

Grade 11

High Honors

Caroline Corbeau, Maria Gagnon, Althea Kastelic, Alice Kenny, Zach Le, Jacob Libby, Carlee Michaud, Jonah Peterson, Martha Thompson, Nasteho Youssouf

Honor Roll

Morgan Aponte-Clarke, Charlie Compton, Madison Ellingsworth, Julia Hansen, Elinor Hilton, Christie Hull, Ray Intwari, Leticia Iteka, Maeve Leclair, Melissa Liang, Jason Liang, Mazie Linsmith, Olivia Reale-Hatem, Rosalie Turner, Jenna Whitten

Habits of Work

Tareq Albdoor, Morgan Aponte-Clarke, John Carpenter, Charlie Compton, Jacob Dunnigan, Tamara Duvnjak, Madison Ellingsworth, Maria Gagnon, Julia Hansen, Elinor Hilton, Ray Intwari, Althea Kastelic, Alice Kenny, Zach Le, Maeve Leclair, Jason Liang, Jacob Libby, Carlee Michaud, Zoleka Mngqibisa, Steff Niwemutoni, Rocio Perez, Jonah Peterson, Olivia Reale-Hatem, Selena Sillari, Elizabeth Thompson, Martha Thompson, Jenna Whitten, Nasteho Youssouf

Grade 12

High Honors

Amelia Arsenault, Frances Bliss, Fan-Tai Bridges, Grace Callahan, Skyler Cummings, Conor Doane, Kobi Eng, Esme Howland, Arthur Johnson, Sophia Leavitt, Maddie Lynch, Liva Pierce, Jane Rooks, Emma Schwartz, Violet Sulka/Hewes, Matthew Suslovic, Lucy Tabb, Grace Victor

Honor Roll

Kiera Badger, Aidan Carter, Meghana Clere, Zoe Coffin, Helen Cunningham, Evelyn Dodson, Marcos Edgar, Anna Hall, Lukas Handanos, Vene Hashimoto, Matice Maino, John McGeoghegan, Kent Ntwari, Luca Serio, Thomas Sheils, Jasper Sommer

Habits of Work

Frances Bliss, Grace Callahan, Meghana Clere, Zoe Coffin, Skyler Cummings, Conor Doane, Esme Howland, Sophia Leavitt, Madegan Lynch, Jane Rooks, Luciana Santerre, Rosemary Santoro, Emma Schwartz, Violet Sulka/Hewes, Matthew Suslovic, Lucy Tabb, Grace Victor

Zahra Abukar, at left, a senior at Portland High School, and Taylor Rickett, who attends Windham High School, won first place for their work marketing a T-shirt entered into the Maine State DECA Conference.