San Antonio College students from Ann Keil's Spring 2004 Electronic Prepress and Illustration Techniques classes, as a service-learning project, designed two anthologies of student writing in an unusual partnership with the North East Independent School District and Gemini Ink, a community-based center for literary arts and ideas.

During the Fall 2003, Gemini Ink's Writers in Communities faculty Cyra Dumitru, Marian Haddad, Lee Robinson, Sheila Sanchez Hatch, Nan Cuba, Jenny Browne, and Beva Sanchez-Padilla worked with students in creative writing classes at three elementary and 11 middle schools.

The elementary school students "learned that their own stories are important; that a poem about skateboarding is just as valid as a poem about spring; and that it feels really, really good to be able to point to a published poem or story in a beautiful book and say, 'That's my work,'" said Bett Butler, director of Writers in Communities, in the Foreword.

She said the SAC visual arts students "competed to see who could create the most imaginative cover illustration and page design," with 30 students involved in the art, design, and layout of the pages.

Ann Keil said, "Because graphic arts professions are service-oriented and creative in nature, it was very appropriate for my students to experience working with Gemini Ink to meet the conceptual challenges, technical specifications, and real deadlines of publishing."

She added, "This experience connected them with our community while exposing them to another art form. The greatest benefit to these future illustrators and graphic designers is that they produced tangible, published samples of their work - a key element to building a professional graphic arts portfolio."

For the middle school student anthology Poetry is a Wild Animal, Ray Cruz illustrated the cover and Christopher Pantoja designed the pages. For the elementary school publication Dinosaurs, Super Dogs, & Pizza Aliens, Alexander (Blue) Hernandez illustrated the cover and Petcharat (Oh) Srikamonsirisak designed the pages. All students in the Electronic Prepress class produced the digital files for printing.

For more information about these art projects, call Ann Keil at 863-5997, for the SAC Service Learning Program call Audrey Grams at 785-6044, or for Gemini Ink call Bett Butler at 734-9673.