Budding artist and animator graduated among the top of his class

About this series: Four years ago, Chalkbeat journalists documented the stories of high school freshmen navigating a critical year via Zoom calls and behind masks. These students, who lived their first year remotely, are now graduating seniors. How has the pandemic shaped their high school lives? How did their expectations come true for these four formative years? We caught up with these members of the Class of 2024 to find out.

Four years ago, Yahya Long was preparing to return to school after spending most of his life learning at home. He hadn't been to school since a brief, miserable experience in third grade.

But then the pandemic hit, upending his plans. He had to wait even longer for in-person learning at a school he and his mother said was a good fit: Workshop School, an unusual place that started as West Philadelphia High's auto academy.

Ninth grade at Workshop was remote—a disappointing experience not only because it delayed meeting his peers, but also because Workshop emphasized hands-on, project-based learning, which was difficult to do on Zoom.

At Workshop, Long was eager to indulge his love of animation and other creative, independent pursuits, as well as catch up on his socialization skills, which he said were rusty.

But on Thursday, in his speech to classmates and their families as salutatorian to the Workshop's 36-member class of 2024, he said graduation was a “momentous occasion” preceded by trials and of tribulations.

“Our journey to get to this position in our lives has been rocky to say the least,” he said. “To have our first year basically ripped away from us because of COVID and then being forced to adapt.”

Long plans to continue his education at Arcadia University, located just outside the city limits in Elkins Park, and study art and animation.

His speech was witty and revealing. “Those four – really three – years of my life were pretty monumental for my development,” he said. “I remember in 10th grade I was a shy weirdo in the corner who kept to himself and made sure not to be noticed, which I think I failed miserably at.”

The workshop helped him evolve, he said, “to become a weirdo who was slightly less shy and willing to speak in front of a crowd of people, pretty crazy if you ask me.”

Now 18, Long has blossomed. At first, he said, going to school in person was just “something to do, a reason to get out of the house.” But attending the workshop in person for three years gave him structure and the opportunity to interact with his peers. Teachers encouraged his creativity and interests.

At first, he said in a previous interview, he found interacting with other students and teachers difficult.

“I wasn’t that outgoing and talkative. I wasn't antisocial, just shy.

But he adapted well. Although Workshop began as an automotive academy and many of the mostly male students were preparing for careers as mechanics, Long was not one of them.

“I think I put on a car tire once, that’s all I did,” he said with a laugh.

Instead, he spent his time making art. In 11th grade, he interned for a semester at the University City Arts League, where he discovered the Fabric Workshop. “Screen printing and textile work seemed cool,” he said.

As a career, he said, “I want to do art. I want art to give people experiences, to make them feel good, to have a positive experience of the things I create, to say, “Whoa, that's cool.”

Frogs often appear in his works: as a child, he learned to read with the book Frog and Toad. In his typically taciturn way, he shrugged his shoulders when asked to expand on this attachment beyond its first exposure through this book.

“I don’t have a deep answer, I just like frogs,” he said. “I just like how they look.”

To hear him tell it, his works reflect everything that's on his mind at the moment, from “circles to robots to everyday people.” One of the scenarios he explored is “a big robot that goes to different planets across the galaxy.”

He also did the animation of a Spider-Man-like character flying and tumbling through the air.

As an animator, he would like to have his own business. “If the opportunity came up to work for Disney, Pixar or video game companies, that would be cool. But I really want to have my own control over the things I want to achieve.

He is not, by his own admission, “a person who wants to change the world or be president.” I want to make sure that while you're here, you have a good time.

Initially, Principal Ayanna Walker told Long he would be the school's valedictorian, and his reaction was neutral, she said. “It wasn't that he was almost crazy, but more like, 'Oh, now I have to give a speech.'”

But just the day before graduation, when the final grades were calculated, it turned out that he was a salutatorian. With a 3.8 grade point average, he was a tiny fraction behind Johari Williams.

He also took this news with enthusiasm. “He's comfortable with who he is,” Walker said, “and he doesn't need validation. It's not often you know who a kid is at a young age. He's part of these people true to their identity… his own person… you never see him with a crowd… he is talented, artistic and intelligent.

The initiative that became Workshop began in 1999 at West Philadelphia High School as an after-school program to build electric cars, founded by teacher Simon Hauger and several other educators. In 2012, it became its own separate school, with a focus that went beyond its automotive roots to focus on practical projects of all kinds.

“Our school is not for kids who want to be a doctor or a lawyer and go to Harvard,” Walker said. Many of his students “don’t fit into a typical school. This school is not a cookie-cutter model.

Because his mission was so specialized, he benefited from the district's long-standing high school admissions process—it has tiers of selective, citywide schools, all with entry requirements—that gave principals a right to vote in the choice of students.

But in an effort to combat any bias and open the opportunity for more students to attend the city's most selective magnets, including Masterman and Central, district leaders three years ago inaugurated a lottery which gave preference to qualified students from five underrepresented zip codes. This system removed any primary discretion in the selection of the incoming class.

The new process has proven problematic for schools like Workshop that cater to a particular type of student.

“It had huge implications,” said Hauger, who left his post as director several years ago. “We serve some of the most marginalized students in the city. »

The workshop facilitators had worked hard to bring more balance to the student body and to ensure that those admitted understood what the school would require of them before deciding to attend. The lottery upended those efforts and caused many students to go who aren't a good fit for the school, Hauger said. There has also been an increase in the number of students with special needs. Its enrollment is now less than 200.

However, for Long, who signed up just before the lottery went into effect, Workshop served him well. For his latest projects at Workshop, he created a website and put together an art portfolio.

“I just want to say that I have the utmost confidence in all of you to succeed in your lives, even if you don't believe it yourself,” he told his classmates, citing the projects he they realized and the people they met. taught them about networking, finance and their area of ​​interest.

“Everything will go according to plan, you just have to work at it,” he said. “And finally, let us all hold our heads high, cross the finish line into the unknown, and accept the trials and tribulations that lie ahead. »

With a broad smile, he finished with a joke that hinted at how nervous he was. Now he said, “I'm going to take a nap or something.” »

Dale Mezzacappa is a senior writer for Chalkbeat Philadelphia, where she covers K-12 schools and early childhood education in Philadelphia. Contact Dale at [email protected].