Life Is No Circus By Rachael Victoria Zofcin

Inspiration M-term 2009: Circus School Made two very good friends, Zouhir and Souad-Rhalla Saw that these children were incredible and talented Story needed to be shared with the rest of the world While on the bus leaving the school, we all began to brainstorm about ways we could help the school when we returned to New York. My Senior Project came into play.

Evolution of an Idea Fundraiser at the Ross School Container of goods over to the school Bringing a circus performer child over from Morocco. Difficult to come up with a solid way to support school Hard to pull together a successful fundraiser last minute At this point a little discouraged about Senior Project, but I wanted to do something for the school Meeting with Frankle, Mrs. Cross and Devon Parkes gave me the great idea to make a book about our M-term experience with the Circus School

Process: Creating A Book First time creating a book Unsure I would be able to meet my goals and aid the school with a book Creating a book which incorporates but the cultural exchange aspect of the M-term as well as the photography aspect. Book class- Using Booksmart. A lot more than meets the eye to creating a book Contacting people to help with book Souad-Rhalla’s help with as my outside consultant

Technical Design Sifting through hundreds of photographs from my peers, teachers and myself. Working on Bridge and Photoshop to edit my images. ICC profiles simulate the images appearance when printed. Learned how to resize and reformat images. Dummy Book: to view the font and the sizing and layout of each section of the book. Required more to tell the story than merely photographs.

Writing Development Discussing students stories with Souad-Rhalla. Wrote down a lot of material, but was unable to tie my words to the images in the book. Changing writing style from creative writer to a documentary style. Gathering quotes from the photographers and members of the M-term trip. Combining peers memories as well as my own newly developed journalistic recaps of our experience.

Book Layout After collecting quotes, where will they go? Changing the layout of the book and placing the images. Intended to be a well articulated story. Not want a jumble of words and images.

Skills Acquired Photoshop, Bridge and Booksmart, book planning and creating. Creative writer to journalist Discovered how to relate my personal stories to others who have never heard them. Managing my time and delegating to myself what needs to be accomplished.

Technical Problems Time management Ordering books (making sure they arrive on time)

Personal Challenges Remember Amisep and the circus children. Wanted a hands on project and was fearful the book was more of a solitaire project. Worried that the book would not be successful in raising awareness for the Amisep school. Found a way to aid school through selling book on Blurb.com

What I Discovered When you care enough about something, even the smallest thing you do makes a difference.

Future After Book Hope for this experience to lead me towards future cultural exchange experiences not only in Morocco, but across the world.

Thank You!! My Parents Kerry Sharkey-Miller Amisep Circus School Devon Parkes Alexis Martino Dr. Kimble Humiston Vasil Gayler Hannah Levy Rebecca Kiembock Sara Salaway Lucie Kessler Natasha Lovaas The Ross School Everyone who helped to make this book possible.