June, 1997 Hartford Courant
Honors |
Shanna Melton: A Poet Who Doesn't
Just Stand By and Let It All Be
By Biliana Dimitrova
Senior Shanna Melton is a talented published poet, who has worked to fight the spread of AIDS and has been honored as a Central Student of the Month.
"Mr. Karcich and Mrs. Miska nominated me for Student of the Month, because of my community service and the work I have done in English. It is an honor and a great achievement for me," said Shanna.
Shanna is a coordinator for the Teenage AIDS Prevention Peer Education program. "I go to different schools to talk to teenagers about HIV, AIDS, the consequences of the virus, and how they can protect themselves from the horrible disease."
Teen AIDS Prevention has started a pilot program at Central. "Yomara Santiago and I had the program incorporated into the Teen Health Center so we can do more projects at school, and talk to some of the health classes about HIV and AIDS."
The Center of Disease Control, located in Washington DC, is a resource of information for the Peer Educators.
The students Shanna educates enjoy learning about AIDS Prevention. "The most important thing is that they are not afraid or embarrassed to ask anything about how to protect themselves from HIV. I think it is easier for them to ask us questions about the virus, because we are the same age as them and we can have an open conversation," said Shanna.
Shanna is a creative person. She enjoys writing and she has had three poems published. "A Mother's Love," a poem she wrote at the age of twelve, was published in Treasure Poems of America. "Why Can't My Generation Just Chill?" was published last year in the 21st Century Poetry Journal, a collection of poems written by teenagers. The poem implores young people to calm down, and try to make the world better:
"Why Can't the People in My Generation just Chill?
They hurt, they are stubborn, they steal and kill.
Why can't we look and stop to think?
No one will ever be just like You
And You will never look like Me."
"Did You Ever?" which was published in the Central literary magazine Images and Words , explores people's feelings:
"Did You Ever wonder why silence is so loud.
Why when you need a shoulder to lean on
No one who would understand is around.
Why you want to be able to depend on yourself,
But deep down you know that you need someone else."
Shanna uses her writing talent to express her feelings of love, pain and concern for society. She worries most about the violence, ignorance, and sickness in the world. Her writing is a way of trying to change the world.
"I read a lot of different kinds of literature, but the work I create comes from my heart," explained Shanna.
Shanna plans to become a social worker and a writer of poetry. "I hope that I will be able to publish all of my poems in a book," said Shanna.
