The College Application Project

The College Application Project is an intervention where college applicants are offered free services and assistance with composing their college admission essays. Applicants were offered a free “Planning Packet” which was created by the artist and included advice on technical planning and organization for essay writing, a writing challenge, and suggestions on developing a creative voice when writing. The packet also included information about FASFA services and how to access application fee assistance. In addition to the planning packet, the artist offered free editing services for admissions essays. The intervention was advertised by punk-style black and white posters which were displayed on sites such as street lamp posts, tattoo shops, in front of police stations, and in public restrooms. Planning packets were available at public libraries, offices of social services, and teen housing service sites, as well as from the Google email account “social justice artists” through which editing services were housed. 

The College Application Project examines issues of educational equality and accessibility. Through this work, the artist considers the possibility of DIY informed punk counter culture methodologies, trust, and community organizing as tools to disrupt discriminatory, systemized, and standardized educational practices. The College Application Project rejects the philosophy that education is limited to formal processes, classrooms, and is contained within  procedural systemization. Instead, The College Application Project explores and celebrates the possibilities that personal growth can be achieved through community support and collaborative efforts, while promoting ideologies that education should be a process of self-empowerment and self-actualization.

The College Application Project

Social Practice Intervention

2018