High School Students Share Art, Community

Participants and educators discuss a new pilot program that connects Pittsburgh students with faculty, community artists and activists.

High school students participating in the Leadership, Excellence, Access and Persistence program, known as LEAP, held a public exhibition at the Frame Gallery on Carnegie Mellon University's campus in late May.

An educational partnership between Carnegie Mellon University and City Charter High School, LEAP uses the arts, humanities and social sciences to empower under-resourced high school students to become agents of social change.

In the year-round program, students learn with and from local artists, activists and CMU faculty who are working to create positive change in the world. They attended an intensive week of workshops on campus in December and had monthly meetings to work on creative projects centered around themes of equity and social justice.