As featured in The Boston Globe:

Postcard Apprenticeship Launched (This is our Boston, Boston Sunday Globe, November 27, 2005)

Postcards Sold in Stores (They've got a different point of viewfinder, Boston Sunday Globe, December 30, 2007)

The photographers, clockwise from top right: Kenneth Tulloch, Jr., Hugo Desius, Marcel White, Jessica Fernandes

How did postcards created by teenagers come to be sold at two CVS stores in the middle of tourist-laden downtown Boston?

Greetings from Our Boston celebrates the diversity of Boston's real people and places through postcards—postcards created by young people under the guidance of adult volunteers, and now on sale exclusively at CVS. (Right: photo by Garfield Stennet.)

For two years, 8th grade students from middle schools around the city have been creating these postcards as part of a public art apprenticeship course led by volunteers in Citizen Schools' 8th Grade Academy. Each student reveals what Boston looks like to them on a daily basis, which might not be what you'd expect to see on a map of Boston or a postcard.

Now, a selection of their work is on sale at two CVS locations in Copley Square, giving tourists and locals alike a glimpse at the city as seen by the young people who live in some of its lesser-known neighborhoods.

Gretchen Schneider, an architectural designer in Boston, and Erika Zekos, a K-12 teacher of design in western Massachusetts, created the Greetings from MY Boston project in 2005 with the support of the Boston Foundation for Architecture and the Kahn Institute at Smith College. They teamed up with Citizen Schools and volunteers Jamara Wakefield (a Boston photographer) and Brendan Ferriter, to create a photography project that celebrates the diversity of Boston's real people and places through postcards.

As Citizen Teachers, these artists gave students disposable cameras and shared their professional knowledge of equipment and composition. They explored the city and snapped hundreds of pictures. At the end of each semester, students chose the photographs that best captured the spirit of their neighborhoods: Dorchester, Roxbury, Mattapan, Roslindale, Hyde Park, South Boston.

The growing collection of striking images was highlighted in the Boston Globe (accessible online, complete with a slide show) and in Architecture Boston, and exhibited at the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University and the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. It lives on at www.greetingsfromboston.com. (Left: photo by Garfield Stennet.)

Now, twenty of the postcards will be on sale to the general public—exclusively at CVS, and due to an entirely different apprenticeship. Store manager Kenny Wong volunteered to teach a Citizen Schools apprenticeship on customer service in his hometown of Malden. He and other CVS managers began to look for other ways to support the work of Citizen Schools. In addition to contributing funding, CVS is now showcasing student work in their stores and helping to inspire more volunteers to get involved. Proceeds go to support Citizen Schools after-school learning programs in Boston. (Right: photo by Leide Cabral.)