Journeys of my life was conceived to celebrate diversity and culture in Loudoun County’s Sterling Park community by giving teenagers the tools and opportunity to express themselves, their experiences, and their dreams through the written word and art. The project empowered 80 teens to discover, collaborate, and create through a two-day intense work session and five months of follow-up work. Their completed work was transformed into bilingual picture books for children at Biblioteca Luz in El Salvador, providing those children with stories and images that depict cultural pride, happiness, and hope.

The children who visit Biblioteca Luz are the children of gang members, fishermen, agricultural workers, and market vendors. They might view their homeland and their opportunities in life differently than the teenagers of Loudoun County. By placing something of value in their hands, those children are often restored some of the dignity that is taken from them when they are otherwise told that luxuries such as books cannot be afforded. With these books, through these stories, children become stewards not only of the books sent to them, but of the dreams shared with them by children so many miles away.

The fifteen stories were compiled into eight full-color books. The books were sent to Biblioteca Luz in El Salvador and shared with children there. Copies of the books were give to the PVHS preschool and LCPL libraries for patrons to read and checkout. Students from the project presented their books to the Board of Education and LCPL Board of Trustees. A letter was sent to the students at Park View from the Ambassador of El Salvador to the United States, congratulating them on their work. All of this made possible thanks to NEH's Latino Americans: 500 Years of History grant.