Learning Life Skills One Bead At A Time

As a jewelry designer, Jan Harasim might not have been the first person you would think of to teach life skills. But James Allen, director of Knowledge-First Empowerment Center in Houston, TX, knew differently. Having seen samples of Harasim’s work, he asked her to become involved in the Empowerment Center’s Summer Camp aimed at helping students excel as both individuals and community leaders by teaching core values and virtues through the arts.

For Allen, art is a large part of empowering his students. He believes the lack of art, music, and humanities programs in public schools has increased behavioral issues and stress levels. Harasim jumped right into the challenge, teaching jewelry making to a group of students from ages 6–14. Two or three days a week, Harasim spent several hours demonstrating and helping students make their own colorful polymer clay beads, emphasizing to them the importance of patience and perseverance throughout the process. While the students were focused on their artistic projects, they were also learning planning skills, practicing math skills through counting, and seeing first-hand the power of following something through to completion. Combining their handmade beads with store-bought materials, the students had a sizeable collection of wearable art by the end of the month.

“Teaching skills in jewelry making and sharing my art with children who were happily engaged in the process gave me great personal satisfaction. I loved passing on to them something that had given me great pleasure in my own life and had served as a small business enterprise for me,” Harasim expressed. “At the end of my time spent with them, it was evident that the children had learned some valuable life lessons as they spent their summer vacations having fun.”

In addition to teaching basic business skills, Harasim provided “business cards” for each child to hand out and taught them how to fold decorated cardstock paper into presentation gift boxes. One enterprising student took the business lessons to heart, selling a set of jewelry to one of his mother’s friends and another boy made a necklace and earring set to give to his mother for her birthday.

Students proudly wore their own jewelry and put some pieces on display at the Empowerment Center—showcasing their art and pride in the lessons learned.