This story, written and photographed by Tomeka Sinclair, editor of The Laurinburg Exchange, originally appeared in the May 10, 2024 edition. It has been posted here with her permission. 

Laurinburg – Fourteen students within two departments at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke received more than a grade following a collaborative assignment; they received lessons in life that transcended through generations.

The task at hand, assigned by Art, Drawing and Design Professor Carla Rokes and English Associate Professor Peter Grimes in partnership with the Scotland County Parks and Recreations, was to pair Rokes’ Intermediate Drawing and Advance Drawing students and Grimes Creative Non-Fiction students with a senior member of the Scotland County Senior Center. Each student in the Non-Fiction class was charged with writing a short memoir that epitomized a pivotal or notable aspect of the of the senior’s life and the art students were tasked with drawing a portrait that complemented the story.

“The goal was to take aspects of the memoirs and incorporate them into the portrait so that there was kind of an overlap between the written story and the visual — to create a visual interpretation,” Rokes said.

The feat differed from the typical assignment given in Grimes’ class.

“The students usually write memoirs about their own lives so we thought we could try to have them try their hand at telling someone else’s story. It’s a challenge right cause it’s not your story to tell,” Grimes said.

Student teams met with their seniors and conducted interviews to better understand their subject. The process took a total of six weeks to complete.

The students presented their finished works before pleased seniors at Scotland Place.

Students Mikaylah Chisholm and Unmai Arokiasamy were paired with senior, B.J. Flowers. Chisholm created the portrait while Arokiasamy wrote the memoir.

“She’s a great person. I loved her. I loved drawing her. She’s a great subject. She was awesome to draw,” Chisholm said after unveiling her portrait.

Taylor Oldham and Clayton Luce paired with Nathaniel Morrison. Luce wrote the memoir and Oldham drew the portrait.

The assignment was different than what Luce was used to.

“I’ve never really wrote a story about someone else’s experience before. I’m more of a creative writer,” Luce said.

Senior Mary Draper was paired with students Keely Oxendine and Mansiben Parmar. Oxendine was the artist while Parmar was the writer.

Parmar sought a senior who was more extroverted and in the process connected so much with her Draper, that they continued to communicate outside of the project.

“We’re going to meet next week,” Parmar had said.

Monika Czartoszewski and Kaleb Lowery were paired with senior Delores Bennett. Czartoszewsk created the portrait while Lowery wrote the memoir.

Cheryse Edwards and Cameron Hunt were paired with Scotland County Parks and Recreation Director Brian Graham. Edwards created the portrait and Hunt wrote Graham’s memoir.

“I got to learn more about how to write other people’s stories which is really a challenge. I had to rework it like two to three times … But, I really learned how baseball is really influential in how Brian deals with certain things … It’s really inspiring.”

Edwards, a self-proclaimed introvert, also said the assignment pushed her out of her comfort zone.

“Talking to him and being able to like learn off of his experiences and also reflect that I’m my drawing was very challenging but I think I did it pretty well,” Edwards said.

Students Sadie Outen and Zoë Jones were paired with senior Aletha Johnson. Outen was tasked with the portrait while Jones wrote the memoir.

Ireland Rhoads and Reonna Bullard were paired with Wade Hatcher. Hatcher’s portrait was created by Rhoads and story was written by Bullard.

“With the seniors, they were able to get some good details, find a nice story … We were really interested in having the students interacting with an older generation, finding some similarities between themselves that they may night have expected to,” Grimes said.

The idea originated from Rokes, whose husband is an occupational therapist who works with seniors.

“I had wanted to do this years ago but we just couldn’t coordinate it so I thought about it … Dr. Grimes’ class was a great match because we wanted to connect an artist with an English student to create a story. We just so happened to have the same number of students so it turned out great,” Grimes said.

This is the first time the two professors collaborated with their classes on a project like this, but it will not be the last.

“It turned out wonderfully … The students really stepped up,” Grimes said.

“The main thing for me was the students got a lot out of it … They have the opportunity to learn from other generations like what comes, challenges they face, rewards so they really enjoyed it,” Rokes said.