STATE COLLEGE — Ridgelines Language Arts introduces Telling Our Stories Together, a collaboration that uses photography and poetry to connect State College Area High School photography students with older adults living with memory loss at Centre Care Nursing and Rehabilitation in Bellefonte.
Throughout June, photographs by local teens will be featured alongside poems written in response to the images by older adults participating in Ridgelines’ A Poem in Our Eyes program. The exhibit will be on view in Schlow Library’s Betsy Rodgers Allen Gallery.
A Poem in Our Eyes is a group writing program that creates engaging intellectual and creative experiences for people living with memory loss. This year, Ridgelines invited State High students to contribute photographs that served as visual prompts for the older adult writers.
In the fall of 2025, teaching artist Robyn Rydzy met with State High students to share an overview of A Poem in Our Eyes and discuss the collaboration.
“When I talked to Danielle Crowe’s photography class about this project, I explained how magical it is to help participants—people with dementia who may feel isolated or misunderstood—light up and open up through the use of interesting photos that spark memories, observations, and laughter,” said Rydzy.
“In the photos I received from these high schoolers, I saw their careful effort to follow my advice on what kinds of images—simple, colorful, clear—work best for my older students. Their submissions were tender and thoughtful, just like the poets who wrote about them.”
To help bring the high school students into the memory unit at Centre Care, Rydzy shared student headshots with the residents so they would have a personal connection to the young photographers whose images they worked with that session.
Through this collaborative storytelling project, high school students had the opportunity to appreciate the imaginations and creative voices of older adults living with memory loss. They also learned how images, and the conversations around them, are a meaningful and joyful way to connect. One goal of the project is for teens to come away with new ideas for staying engaged in relationships with family and community members experiencing memory loss.
For Centre Care residents, Telling Our Stories Together is a chance to participate in an artistic exchange through imagery of Central Pennsylvania as seen through the eyes of local teens. The collaboration deepens their creative experience and strengthens their sense of belonging within the surrounding community.
Flying Birds
I love the butterflies, spots and stripes.
Sittin’ on the orange, sucking it up.
I bet it’s good.
I would fly wherever the wind would take me.
I’d probably never stop
depending, of course,
on where you are.
Flutter, flutter, flutter.
~ Excerpt from a poem written by eight residents of Centre Care’s memory support neighborhood inspired by a photograph by Kende Kurucz.
Ridgelines’ Telling Our Stories Together project was made possible in part by a grant from Centre Foundation’s Janet Atwood Fund, as well as generous support from individuals, local businesses, and granting agencies.
