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Apollo Student Designs HAPPY Shirt
This year Apollo student, Aden Abdullahi, discovered his passion – art. The art class became his favorite class of all. Susan Goodwin, American Sign Language interpreter, supported Abdullahi so he would be successful in completing his drawing, painting, making collages, etc. assignments in art class. If not for Ms. Goodwin, Abdullahi might never have discovered his amazing gift of making art.
During the first trimester of this school year, one of his class assignments was to create a sign. Abdullahi chose to draw an owl – one of his favorite animals. Ms. Goodwin supported and guided him when making black marker lines. When it came to coloring his owl, the assignment was to have color shades that went from darkest to lightest and dark again. Abdullahi chose the colors all by himself and arranged them in the order he wanted to use them. He chose his favorite word “HAPPY,” which truly describes him, and wrote it all the way around the owl. The outer triangles that go around the sign have the letter A, for Aden.
Ms. Burrow was very impressed with Abdullahi’s abilities to create various types of art, so she and Ms. Goodwin challenged Abdullahi and signed him up for the Art Club. The first several Mondays of Art Club, Abdullahi didn't want to go home because he wanted to create more amazing pictures. Ms. Goodwin showed the DCD (Developmental Cognitive Disabilities) team Abdullahi's owl. The team decided to make a shirt to represent a newly discovered talent and passion Abdullahi will have for a long time.