Summer is coming to an end. As we move into the fall and a new school year, Artists For Humanity (AFH) has closed out the season with its annual Big Summer Show.

AFH employs upwards of 400 Boston teens annually. Their summer programming allows their young artists to work part-time in the AFH studio in South Boston. Employees can be part of 3D Design, Animation, Creative Tech, Graphic Design, Painting, Photography, and Video studios, where they will work on a variety of personal and client projects, with the opportunity to earn a commission if their work is sold.

“I think that what we do here is so interesting because it’s a good job, right? (12:09) You’re getting paid to be here, but it’s an opportunity,”  said Curation & Exhibitions Manager Alison Drasner. “I think a lot of people have to wait until college in a way to try out different things that they might be good at,”

The visual arts are AFH’s bread and butter, but rising Boston College High School sophomore Spencer Escandon put together a more interactive experience as part of the creative tech studio. His game, “STRAFE,” is a first-person parkour simulator made on the Unity game engine – the same used by “Pokémon GO,” “Call of Duty: Mobile,”  and “Beat Saber.”

A lifelong gamer, Escandon, and fellow AFH teen Tai’rei Brade-Benford, wanted to emulate specific mechanics from their favorite games. “I just thought it would be so dope if I actually made one to show off to people,” he said.

Before joining AFH, Escandon had little interest in coding, but he has come to enjoy the challenges and opportunities to collaborate with his fellow coders. He said the making of “STRAFE” was challenging, especially in nailing character movement. “It was very frustrating. We spent a lot of time on this game, and overall, I’m very proud of the product that we made,” he shared. “A lot of testers who have played this game are really happy too.”

Though there are other games in development on his laptop, Escandon is casting a wide net with his developing coding skills. He plans to study computer science and hardware engineering. 

New Mission High School senior Gabriel Ovalles spent his summer in the photography studio working on client shoots and taking pictures for his own portfolio. 

He works by the book and described his creative process as asking what to shoot, how to shoot it, and then for feedback. “I go for whatever looks the most interesting or whatever stands out the most, but at the end of the day, I do like to see the little subtle things in life,” he said.

Ovalles enjoys taking pictures of everyday scenery, drawing extraordinary attention to otherwise ordinary sights. “You walk past buildings every day, but you don’t look at the buildings every day,” he explained.

He also enjoys taking pictures of nature, specifically the contrast between flora at various stages in its lifecycle. One of his prints, titled “Nature’s Tranquility,” depicts a goose.

He credits AFH with teaching him to take high-quality photos and giving him both a platform and the equipment to explore photography. “This program, as a whole, changed my outlook on life. I get to go to so many places and so many different places I’ve never seen before,” he said.

Ovalles plans to keep photography in his back pocket as a side hustle while he works toward becoming an HVAC technician at Franklin Cummings Tech.

AFH will resume programming in September. Teens looking to join their after-school studio can apply here. Individuals and enterprises looking to support AFH or commission the teens’ work can inquire about creative services here. Original work, a portion of the proceeds of which go directly to the artist, is available here.