Every year Spectrum’s seniors complete senior capstone projects. This year, there were many that stood out and were interesting. One project that stood out in the 2026 class was the project of Grace Cerezo. Grace rented a space from her church in Nowthen and decided to host a painting class to benefit the organization she chose to work with. Grace had supplies and hosted two different sessions of this painting class. She had slides going through the process of the painting. In order to participate in this class, you simply had to bring donations for the organization.

Grace Cerezo said, “I did that project because I really like art and I originally was gonna do some sort of music or singing lessons but I kinda realized that would be kinda hard. So then I was like well I love painting so then I decided to do a painting lesson.”

Grace chose a project that she enjoyed and had a connection to. This made the project enjoyable and exciting for her to complete. The painting added her love of art to the project. The organization was tied to her family. Many classmates and even teachers from Spectrum came to support her and her organization through this project.

Danica Orth said, “I know that she’s got some different family and some background with that so it’s something that she was already interested in. And she seemed pretty passionate about it. And you know it’s a lot of work to put on an event like that but it seemed like it was worth it for her and for her organization.”

Grace’s personal connections and love for her project made it the success that it was. Grace was able to bring joy and positivity to people in the Spectrum community as well as helping the people at Breaking Cycles Guatemala, the organization she chose to benefit.

Grace Cerezo said, “The most meaningful part is knowing that all those donations are going down to the kids in Guatemala who need it the most.”

Grace’s collected supplies will be sent down to Guatemala to benefit the people she worked so hard to help.