A Gift of Gratitude and Growth

Last summer, Greene Towne alum Rana Roosevelt—now attending Yale University as a freshman—returned to thank the school that first nurtured her creativity and unique way of learning.

Inspired by her early experiences with synesthesia and the hands-on, inclusive environment at Greene Towne, she designed and painted a mural outside the art classroom as a lasting gift to the community. Featuring poetry and student handprints among blooming sunflowers, the mural celebrates growth, creativity, and the joyful spirit of learning.

Rana when she attend Greene Towne:

Here, she shares her story in her own words:

In my world, grass isn’t green. Because of my synesthesia, the word grass is ruby red, honeycomb yellow, and lilac purple. Synesthesia is a neurological connection in the brain that makes me associate colors with numbers, letters, shapes, and even at times sounds or tastes. 

Because of this, I’ve always loved to create art and work with my hands, as it gave me an outlet for all of the movement in my mind. Until I was well into middle school, it was hard to verbalize how my brain and my way of seeing the world differed from others. 

But Greene Towne always supported me and my way of learning. The way they used interactive systems like consistent color patterns to teach numbers, as well as having many artistic activities available, like cutting out shapes and coloring in continents, was critical in fostering my creativity instead of smothering it. (My parents told me stories of how I came home every day with piles of papers so excited to show what I did—I actually had a collage of those papers literally as high as my ceiling hung up on my wall) 

Greene Towne taught me how to harness the way my mind works instead of trying to work around it. It taught me how to explore different ways of creating and thinking without being scared to fail, and to not confine myself to one way of doing things.

But one of my favorite parts of Greene Towne is that the way they teach isn’t just made for my learning style, or some idealized version of how a child should learn—it is incredibly flexible, inclusive, and explorative. I never ever felt limited, only motivated. The lessons and learning styles I’ve taken from my time at Greene Towne have stayed with me for the rest of my life and help me in both areas of academics and art.

I wanted to give back to Greene Towne in appreciation of everything they gave me. And, I wanted to do it in the medium they first introduced me to. So, I decided to paint a mural for them. This mural is on the wall outside of the art classroom, stretching about 18 feet across. 

It features sunflowers, specifically their growth—one of the stems has my handprints as leaves, and another has handprints of the students! I chose to do this because I want to help further engage greene towne students in artistry in hope of inspiring them the way I was inspired. Through the motif of growth, I want to show them all that lies ahead of them, and all the great things they can do. 

The mural also features poetry I wrote about my synesthesia that is color coded to certain numbers (it’s hard to explain, so if you have any questions I’d love to answer them!).

Thank you so much Greene Towne for all that you’ve done for me—Greene Towne first shaped me into the artist I am today—and I hope this mural shows that. Most of all, I really hope that you all can see it in its completion!