SEED Students Host Corn Husk Doll Workshop

A finished corn husk doll.
 Photo by Jocelyn Arana

To show their gratitude to their instructors and others who have reached out to them in their time here, the SEED students hosted an arts and crafts workshop, where they made traditional hand painted dolls out of corn husks to. Student Rosa Lopez hosted the workshop, and stated it was a fun activity that brought people together. “I learned how to make the doll in a workshop hosted by a colleague I work at in El Salvador. We gave the dolls to some of the parents who helped us raise money for our school. I thought it would be a nice idea to teach our instructors here something we know, and make something beautiful in the process. ”

Some of the teachers expressed that they would like to have similar hands on activities with their own students in El Salvador, but because of budget constraints and lack of supplies, they do not get to do them often. Lenin Perez, a fourth grade mathematics teacher, says “I would love to be able to have craft days because I feel the students would be more interested in coming to school if they felt it was a fun environment. Because of restraints from our districts or principals, as teachers, we don’t have much of a say in the availability of extracurricular activities."

Students Rosa Lopez, Lissette Montes, and Claudia
Venegas hand painting the dolls. Photo by Jocelyn Arana.

The dolls will be given to the SEED instructors and presenters who have taught at least on class with the group this semester. Some of the dolls will also go to professors at the Montebello school district, for working with the SEED students on classroom observations to their elementary and middle schools.