While waiting in long and crowded lines, students stare up at the food service walls and see 21 portraits of students, each meant to tell a personal story. Each picture was taken by another student as part of the American Teenager Project.

In the American Teenager Project, students are trained in photography and interview skills and then take portraits of each other which are accompanied by an interview. Piedmont students participated in the project, and the final results, portraits of students, have been displayed in food service this year.

Senior Lauren Dunlap participated in the project, and is both a photographer and a subject of the pictures displayed at food service.

¨Participants interview teenagers to get a better sense of who they are as a person and explores life, and  difficulties, Dunlap said. “It creates a sense that everyone’s a teenager and we’re all going through the same hardships,¨

The purpose of the American Teenager Project is to create community across different backgrounds and to show youth that they are not “the only one,” and that all teenagers have experience and conflict in their lives, according to project’s website, theamericanteenagerproject.org.

“The most important part of the project is that it allows young people to get in touch with and share their most authentic selves,” said project co founder and MHS teacher Julia Hollinger.

The American Teenager Project is ongoing and takes place nationwide. Piedmont students were offered the opportunity as part of the Academy of Integrated Studies and Community Engagement (AISCE) program, in the summer of 2013.

“The portraits are publicly displayed to convey a message of a diverse community that values and sees the participants,” Hollinger said.

Part of the project is displaying the permanent piece of art in Piedmont.

“A lot of times before I took the class I would see bits and pieces of people that I would mistake for a whole,” sophomore Claire Laymon said. “After class, I became really interested in people, their stories, and their perspectives on life.”

Students participate in the project through the classroom or with nonprofits, as the American Teenager Project partners with people or organizations instead of offering its own class. PHS social psychology teacher Anne Aldridge-Peacock and MHS teacher Ken Brown have trained with the American Teenager Project, said Hollinger.

“I definitely learned a lot about how important it is to never assume things about people before getting to know them,” Laymon said.

Participants ask questions to accompany student portraits including: What is the best part about being a teenager? What is the worst part? What is the hardest thing you have ever done?

“I am really happy I was able to take part in this experience because it was great to able to get to know someone that I would not have otherwise known,” Dunlap said.

The American Teenager Project was founded by photographer Robin Bowman and began with It’s Complicated: The American Teenager, a book by Bowman, that contains portraits of teenagers paired with interviews. This book is similarly formatted to the project Piedmont students participated in, with photographic portraits and accompanying interviews.

“Without the project, I wouldn’t really be the same person because now I am more open to who I am as a person and to my whole life story,” Dunlap said.