September 11, 2001 has been called the “day of infamy” of the  second millennium.  As hideous acts of inhumanity aimed at our country thrust Americans, including all of us at Ryan Junior High School, into a state of emergency, we were all resolved to do whatever was needed in order to return to normalcy. 

            A momentous achievement at Ryan emerged out of the smoke and rubble of “9-11”  The first stage of production was undertaken by a student committee of eight students: Shawn Bennett, Alexandria Calizaire, Janet Cheng, Olivia Chan, Roman Khasidov, Samantha Lynn, Nicole Wong and group captain, Michael Yagudayev.  The job of the committee was to select photo images to form the eight montages which were next laid out by art teacher, Marc Josloff. The committee then helped create production kits for 250 Ryan students. 

           In January a class of 30 students began working on the first installment of an emotion-charged mural depicting the various phases of “the tragedy” from disaster to recovery.  Soon, seven more classes added their panels to the 30’x 6’ mosaic mural.” As big as this artwork is, the half-million pieces of colored paper, torn from discarded magazines, are each only the size of a fingernail.  These piles of scraps on every worktable became transformed into virtual paint boxes.  Every student was responsible for enlarging small reference squares into 9”x 12” cells that fitted like puzzle pieces into their class panels. Finally, members of the original committee, joined by Jennifer Gonzalez, Tiffany Liu, Farah Yar and Ferdous Zannat, assembled the class panels into their imposing sequence.                                                                              

            Students from four grade levels with over thirty different ethnic backgrounds, of every religion one can imagine, worked harmoniously on this project. It is the hope of Ryan JHS 216 of District 26Q, its principal, Janice Imundi, art teacher, Marc Josloff, the mural committee, and the 250 student artists that the result of this unified effort will serve as a powerful and poignant legacy for all those who get the opportunity to view it. 

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