Overwhelmed by the horrific news out of Virginia on Monday I lost track of something good that happened that day.

During the past few weeks I’ve been volunteering with a group of Detroit teenagers who are gathering information about their neighborhood and designing a website that will be used as a resource for other teenagers.  They are interviewing organizations that hire or use teenage volunteers, they are taking pictures of their neighborhood and they are putting all of that into their website.

Monday afternoon they presented some of their work at a talk and dinner in the school of education on UM’s campus.  Some of their photographs, along with their writings were blown up and matted.  They were hung on a wall in the school of education, complete with spotlights.  They looked like art.  They WERE art. 

You should have seen the students’ faces light up when they arrived and saw their work being displayed so beautifully.  The work glowed.  The students glowed.  Each student spoke about their work to a large group of educators and graduate students.  They did so well.  They are right to be proud.

I know that seeing their work validated by a group of adults in a place like the University of Michigan will have a positive affect on them.  I was happy to be even so slightly involved.