By Theresa-Marie Wilson

Three high school students are working on a project with a message that hundreds of people will see on a daily basis for decades to come.
Last fall, the 5 Cities Diversity Coalition issued a call for artists from area high schools to create a project that furthers tolerance and acceptance of all people.
The Coalition was formed in 2011 after a cross was burned in a vacant lot next to the home of a mixed-race family on South Elm Street. Their mission is to promote human understanding of the intersections of gender, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, and age.
Arroyo Grande High School junior Zoe Newcomb and seniors Gabriella Santiago and Cassie Travis are the remaining student artist still involved in the project out of an original group of 19.
“I have to hand it to these three girls, they have really stuck with it,” said artist Jim Trask, who serves as the students design advisor. “Once they start a project they are obviously aware that you follow it through.”
Since last October, the students have met weekly for a combined total of 120 hours creating the project from original concept to building scale models along various stages of development.
“I am very interested in art, and when I heard the theme of diversity, I thought it be a challenge” said Newcomb. “What do you represent diversity with? Doing this has opened a lot of new ideas of what diversity is, for me. I hope that this will make people think more about it (diversity) and see all the different parts of it and that they combine as one.
The sculpture title, “Arboring Our Roots of Diversity,” is a play on the Coalition’s use of the words “harboring our community” in their literature. It is a tree with five roots representing each of the Five Cities and would stand about 10 feet tall. The top of the sculpture will be a loose representation of a globe.
“That will represent diversity because everyone comes from a different place in the Five Cities,” Travis said. “You will have the Five Cites and the world that is represented as a whole.”
The words history, generations, peace, community, culture, education and, of course, diversity would be embossed along the concrete base of the piece.
“I hope it shows that even though there are a lot of differences in the community like race and religion and such, but we are still one family,” said Santiago. “We are all together.”
The future sculpture would stand on the grounds in front of the Clark Center where not only high school students, but also the hundreds of drivers traveling daily on Fair Oaks Avenue will see the structure.
“When it is built, I think people are going to be able to stand there and realize that they are not the only ones in the world to have certain ideas and philosophies,” Trask said. “This should convey the idea that there is a lot of diversity, a lot of different people, and we all have to get along.”
Once complete the students will present their final scale model for approval from the Coalition, the Clark Center, the school district and the City of Arroyo Grande.
“I think one of the things they will learn from this is taking it before the committees that we have to be reviewed by and talking about it, presenting it,” said Trask. “They will learn what it feels like to have a bunch of adults ask questions about it.  It is going to be a challenge. They are going to come away with some very good experience.”
The students said they have learned about more than diversity in the time they have spent working together after school, mostly about teamwork.
“Before this project, I did not like working with other people,” Travis said. “I like being around other people, but I have always been a person that works better by myself.  It’s cool because it brings in our whole purpose for working on this, to bring together our community. We brought our little group together, especially since we are down to just three of us and Jim. It is so much more personable and the connection is there. It is so much easier to talk about ideas now. There is no one idea that’s a bad idea. Someone will have an idea, and we make a model of it. The whole experience has been really great.”
If approved, plans are to begin building the sculpture this summer.