Polly Fox students share dreams in portraits

Junior high student Hannah Brown is photographed by photographer Chris Schooler during the Head Full of Dreams photo shoot at the Polly Fox Academy in Toledo.

The Blade/Lori King
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Lawyer. Pharmacy technician. Phlebotomist. Fashion designer. 

Girls at Polly Fox Academy lined up one by one Friday afternoon to have their portraits taken, each holding a chalkboard with a dream for her future written on it. 

Sataralyn Harris, 18, posed with her sign reading “pre-school teacher.”

“I’ve wanted to do that since I was about 8,” she said, recalling that she used to play school growing up with her sister.

Sataralyn said she sees the Head Full of Dreams Initiative as a positive thing for students at Polly Fox, an alternative school near downtown Toledo for pregnant girls and young mothers in grades 7-12. She has a son turning 2 next month and a 2-month-old daughter.

Senior Aliyah Washington gets her photo taken by photographer Chris Schooler during the Head Full of Dreams photo shoot at the Polly Fox Academy in Toledo.

“A lot of the mothers don’t think they could make their dreams coming true with having a kid at a young age,” she said. 

The goal is to reverse that kind of thinking, said Diana Patton, who sits on the academy’s board and came up with the idea. This is the second year for the initiative, which is meant to build confidence and motivation.

“What you see around you tends to be what you believe,” Ms. Patton said. “We want our girls to see something bigger about themselves. We want them to believe in things they can’t see physically all the time, but seeing this picture and their dreams helps them to visualize that.”

The portraits, taken by photographer Chris Schooler, will hang in the school.

Aliyah Washington, 20, is due to have a baby on Halloween and posed Friday with the word “bailiff” written on her sign.

“I want to work in the criminal justice field,” she said while waiting in line. “I like helping people.”

Each month, school officials choose a student of the month based on attendance, performance, attitude, and character. A student of the year will be honored at the end of the term.

Contact Lauren Lindstrom at llindstrom@theblade.com, 419-724-6154, or on Twitter @lelindstrom.