For one afternoon last Friday, MS 391 briefly turned into a factory of activism. Its products: T-shirts, visors, mugs and posters, with poignant messages about domestic abuse, staying in school, the environment, and other issues. Students worked in groups outside the school, cheerily painting and gluing as music blared throughout the premises.

The event was part of the Fordham-area middle school’s celebration of “Democracy Day,” during which they were also visited by a Holocaust survivor, and videos of student speeches were played in the school’s lobby.

Each project the students worked on was led by one of the school’s “O Ambassadors,” high-achieving students who were selected to learn leadership skills from Oprah’s non-profit Angel Network. According to the Angel Network Web site, the “O Ambassadors” studied development goal themes for the future: poverty, education, health and sustainable development.”

Pedro Santana, MS 391’s principal, says the school also partnered with the non-profit organization Children for Children, which helped set up the event, to promote community service throughout the school year. Santana, who grew up in the west Bronx, says he wanted to teach the kids that although “people assume that those in (lower socio-economic) communities are always looking for stuff, you can never be too poor to give.”

Santana said the day’s projects were the culmination of a yearlong effort by the school to teach community service to its students.

Joseph Rivera, an eighth grader who is one of the school’s “O” Ambassadors, says that he’s noticed a marked improvement in the school’s atmosphere because of its community service programs. “Students are improving,” Joseph says, “and more students are staying in class.”

Posters, T-shirts and mugs, were marked with tributes to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and phrases such as “stop domestic abuse” and “school is cool.” In addition, the students made coloring books for elementary-level youths and decorated flowerpots, which will be given to senior citizens.

Inside the school, students’ video-taped speeches played on a loop on large television screens, a testament to how much they had learned throughout the year. The speeches covered a wide range of topics, including global warming, child abuse, and poverty. Seventh grader Josephine Menendez whose speech was about global warming, said she feels as if “the Earth gave us a home and took care of us. Now the Earth is sick, and it’s our turn to take care of it.”

Loraine Wilkins, the principal of CIS 313, the “School of Leadership Development,” who brought her students to participate in the day’s festivities, noted that the students weren’t “just going through the motions. They’re really proud of their projects, too.” —Graham Kates