jrowe

The Sake of Strangers

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“I am a first-generation Latino who will be attending The University of Irvine this fall. It’s cool to say that I will be the first in my family to attend a four-year university, but it comes with a lot of pressure. In this poem, I wrote about my struggles with being a first-generation student and my battle with imposter syndrome. Acknowledging these emotions on paper is good and art is my therapy. I hope my poem makes people feel seen and gives others an insight into what it feels like to be a first-generation student.”

The Light

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People who really know me know just how hopeful I am about everything. From having hope that I will do a good job on the test to believing I can learn a new language at 5 years old (I moved to the US during that time). I always believe good will come no matter what. There is always something, even the tiniest detail, to have hope for.

For the Forgiveness of Sins

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This piece reflects a rekindling of my spiritual relationship: reflections on my body, and my self, and how both found love, and Christ, too.

Oil Pastel Cat

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“I created this piece to bring awareness in hopes that other people find art to express yourself. My piece of art expressed the beauty and color of art.”

My Story

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This short tik tok video depicts a part of my life where I was struggling for four years and then finally found happiness. The loss of loved ones and the four mental hospitals I’ve been to due to depression, bipolar disorder, and anxiety doesn’t stop me from being happy. While working on this piece I realized how far I’ve come in life- overcoming those difficult challenges and all the hard work finally paid off.

Changing Hearts

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I wrote this poem because we never know what other people are going through. So many people have been through a lot of struggles in life (mental health struggles, family struggles, etc.), including me, so we need to be kind to one another. I hope this poem helps inspire teenagers that have struggled in life to always have hope.

The Scapegoated Minority

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“My piece shows a group of Asian Americans that are real people who have been victims of hate crimes in the U.S, both victims who have died, and those that have survived, in a courtroom in front of a judge depicted to be ignorant and dismissive of their injustice. I wanted to bring more awareness to the struggles the Asian community faces and how it gets ignored and how people will go out of their way to make excuses or turn a blind eye about it, rather than work to fix the problem at hand.”

Justice for Everyone

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“My piece was inspired by the idea of breaking through racial prejudice, using broken glass to symbolize what we see and what some ignore. The crashed window symbolizes an opening, breaking with past injustice. The bright yellow center is the hope of all people respecting each other’s rights regardless of their mental health status, race, or thoughts. There are some people supporting mental health by wearing wristbands with the hotline for mental health, someone supporting black lives, hope, and stop for hate crimes. It is about the diversity of people uniting and demonstrating justice for everyone.”

sySTEMic- Chien-Shiung Wu

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My illustration depicts “The First Lady of Physics”, Chien-Shiung Wu, as well as Tsung-Dao Lee and Yang-Chen Ning, two figures with significant contributions to parity violation. These individuals made a crucial contribution to physics by disproving the law of conservation of parity, outlining that the laws of physics must remain the same for two systems that are mirror images of each other. Lee, Ning and Wu all contributed to the conclusion that parity could not be assumed in all instances, particularly in weak interactions, however only Ning and Lee walked away with a Nobel Prize in Physics. Using the idea of two mirrored images behaving differently, I illustrated how the scientists were all crucial to the experiment, but only Lee and Ning were recognized/reflected. Wu would receive a Wolf Prize several years after the experiment, but it is no doubt that her contributions to parity violation were overlooked, exemplifying the gender bias that has been fostered not only in STEM, but also across the globe for several years. Wu was not only an incredible physicist, but also an advocate for equality in STEM, questioning if “…the tiny atoms and nuclei, or the mathematical symbols, or the DNA molecules have any preference for either masculine or feminine treatment” (Chien-Shiung Wu at MIT, 1964). Such instances of injustice can easily be excused as things of the past, but it is crucial that we acknowledge how gender discrimination has, and still does, prevail in the world.

The Jellyfish Theory

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I decided to talk about addiction to marijuana. I think this is an important topic that not many like to talk about because there is a lot of misinformation about CBD and the use of marijuana. I wrote about my point of view and my story in relation to this topic. I feel strongly about this topic in relation to your mental health. I feel that my voice should be heard and my hope is that this helps others by reading my poem.