Painting helps spread unity at Thomas Jefferson High School

As a fifth-grader in Saudi Arabia, Ebtehal Badawi dreamed that someday she would become an artist.

More than 20 years later, that dream has finally come true.

Her first painting, which now hangs in the main hallway at Thomas Jefferson High School, is serving a much greater purpose: It’s unifying students of all races, religions and backgrounds.

“I hope that they can share their differences. That they can be proud of who they are,” said Badawi, 38, of Jefferson Hills. “It’s OK to be different.”

West Jefferson Hills School District leaders dedicated Badawi’s painting in late January in front of the school’s year-old Multicultural Student Union group.

This is just one of the ways the district is working to ensure its schools are more inclusive and students are more culturally competent, Superintendent Michael Ghilani said.

His conversation with Badawi started on that very topic. However, a friendship quickly grew from there. When Badawi gifted Ghilani with a copy of her painting, titled “Expressions,” he knew it had to go in the new Thomas Jefferson High School, as its message is one that leaders are trying to spread at the school.

That means “focusing on people’s similarities and what connects us as human beings rather than focusing on our differences,” the superintendent said.

For Badawi, who moved to the United States 14 years ago, it’s become somewhat of a mission to unite people and make them feel connected, no matter where they’re from or what they look like or believe.

Badawi, who has a bachelor’s in biology and a master’s in industrial hygiene, was introduced to art therapy several years ago. Before she could enter the program at Seton Hill, though, she needed to take prerequisites.

One of those was art. It was in a class at CCAC’s Boyce Campus where the teacher told students to close their eyes and draw lines on a piece of paper. Once they opened their eyes they connected them.

When the teacher saw Badawi’s painting, he told her to do it in color. That’s when “Expressions” came together.

“I saw it as different people trying to get together and sharing their differences,” she said.

But Badawi wasn’t done there.

When she saw on the news about a student at Chartiers Valley High School — a Syrian refugee who was wearing a hijab — being beaten by a peer, she had to reach out and offer moral support.

She wondered how someone could do this and how someone could videotape this and not call for help.

After speaking with the family, she connected with a group of moms to make posters against bullying and racism.

Badawi drew one of Pittsburgh’s golden bridges with hands all of skin tones above it. Each hand has a different religious symbol — even atheism — above it.

“It doesn’t matter which belief you have, Pittsburgh can bring us together,” she said.

The painting, “Pittsburgh Builds Bridges,” was made into posters that are hung all throughout the region, including two at Pleasant Hills Middle School, where one of her children goes to school.

Now, she’s working to find walls to paint the image on as murals. She already has three.

She’s visiting community meetings across the city looking for more walls in hopes of uniting more people.

Badawi also is working on a book, “Pittsburgh Builds Bridges.” She recently brought it to Jefferson Hills Intermediate School — where her other child goes to school — to gather student input.

She hopes through all of this that people will start working together, develop acceptance for one another, that children will learn about unity and the murals will fill spaces will love and peace.

She was inspired to keep going after a friend from Puerto Rico, whose son also goes to Pleasant Hills Middle School, told her that the woman’s child was having a panic attack in school when he looked up and saw the poster.

“He started to draw a bridge. He felt he belonged and he got better,” she said.

The painting at TJ is working to do just that, along with other efforts underway, like the start of the multicultural student union a year ago.

“We just want to make everybody in the school feel included and like they have a place if they need someone to go to to talk about their problems,” said junior Jackie Guenther, 16, who serves as the secretary for the union.

Grace Nwabuogu, 17, the group’s vice president, said she and other classmates in the past have dealt with issues surrounding race.

“We don’t want anybody else to feel like they don’t belong because of the color of their skin,” she said. Students, she said, felt like it was their job to address racial issues in a way that would bring students in the school together.

The district even is planning a multicultural night in April that will include food, performances and educational displays.

Badawi’s painting is one thing that makes students of all backgrounds feel included, they said.

Grace said she thinks the school has needed something like this for a long time.

“We had nothing to represent us,” she said. “We were always the minority group and pushed to the side and no one ever thought (about) how we felt in the school. I really feel like this painting represents us.”

Junior Payton Payton, 17, the union’s secretary, said the painting makes her feel hopeful about the direction the school is headed.

“I hope that it will make people take a step back and think that there are still problems, even if they don’t see them,” she said.

Grace sees the painting as empowering. Payton sees it as inclusive and giving minority students a voice.

Derrick Turner, TJ’s cultural advisor with the Dignity & Respect Campaign, said that “any expression of cultural awareness, inclusion, acceptance and positive energy” is good for the school. That can be found in the painting.

“There’s a way to treat people just because they’re people, and the more of that message that we can get out the better,” he said.