Portsmouth High School Student Lends Artistic Vision to Africa Humanitarian Trip

Clara Richmond, 17, of will travel with 11 of her fellow students this February to Ghana, Western Africa, as part of her senior project.

The group, part of Infinity Volunteers, will be involved with a Web design seminar at the Professional Secretarial Academy of Ghana (PROFESA) in Abeka. This non-profit vocational training school educates impoverished young women who cannot otherwise afford to attend public high school.

Richmond, an AP art student, will present a multi-paneled mural installation to the PROFESA School.

The mural, a painted, canvas-based collage of different mediums representing times of day into night, is intended to connect Portsmouth to Western Africa.

The use of colors, textures and symbols, including indigenous tree bark from our area and Ghanaian fabrics adorned with Adrinka symbols, visual symbols used to communicate evocative messages that represent parts of Ghanaian life, will help Clara tell a story that she hopes “will leave a long-lasting impact as well as a time reference” of when the group (Infinity Volunteers) was at the school.

Richmond’s mentor, Isabel Mattia, a visual art and African studies student at Brown University, says mentoring Clara “has been exciting.”

“Along the way, I have seen her outstanding creativity, energy and commitment to her project," Mattia said. "Clara approaches her project with the openness to make it a true learning opportunity for herself, and also a wonderful gift for the school (where) she will install it in.

"Ghana is such a wonderful place, and a country that really values the creative elements of its culture. I am so excited for Clara to have the opportunity to experience it.”

This is Richmond’s first trip with Infinity Volunteers. Intrigued by stories she heard from other students on previous humanitarian trips with Infinity, she wanted to “seize the opportunity” while she could.

She looks forward to the "new experience and is interested to see how grateful they are for the things we take for granted.” “It will be so different from America, where we expect so much," she said. "We want and want and need and need, we take a lot for granted.”

Going to a third world country is daunting for anyone and aside from the ubiquitous health and cultural related concerns, Richmond has a slight fear of flying. However, she hopes the impact on her, as well as the PROFESA School, will all be worth it after lending a helpful hand to a world we know so little about.