Most likely, you will not find your average 10th-grader with the interest in and a working knowledge of gentrification as a threat to inner-city communities—especially not enough to write a full-length, award-winning play about it.
But Ciara Sing, 15, is not average. Not only did she write this play, “The Lord’s Prayer,” she was one of only three high school division winners in City Theatre’s 2015 Young Playwrights Festival. As the author of the play, Ciara was included in every aspect of its production at City Theatre, including casting, auditions and involvement in rehearsals. She was always consulted by the theater production staff on any changes they wanted to make.
The Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts 6-12 student is extraordinarily intelligent, and she operates and speaks with a level of maturity that far exceeds her years. Ciara’s outstanding accomplishments are too numerous to list.
“In the 10 years Ciara has been in school, she has gotten nothing but A’s and received one B, and we watched her determination to change that,” says her father, Samuel Sing.
Her gift and interest in writing notwithstanding, Ciara also has a passion for science and math. She is part of INVESTING NOW, a pre-college preparatory program at the University of Pittsburgh created to stimulate, support, and recognize the high academic performance of pre-college students from groups that are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics majors and careers.
A gifted writer and spoken word artist, she has won numerous competitions and has presented her poetry at a variety of city-wide events, according to Emiola Jay Oriola, interim associate director of INVESTING NOW.
While Ciara has a strong leaning toward and gift for creative writing, which is her field of study at Pittsburgh CAPA, she expects to use her writing in ways that will make positive changes for African-American students in public schools.
“I really love writing, plays, poems, etc.,” Ciara says, “but I’m convinced I want to use my writing to work on policy writing and education—as a way to fight for equity in schools.”
Ciara also has a high degree of racial consciousness. Recently elected as president of the Black Student Union at CAPA, the first sophomore to hold the position, she speaks of some of the pushback she received from her peers.
“Winning the election came with some challenges, in that there are those who feel because I am biracial I should not be speaking for African-American issues,” she says. “Sometimes, it is hard for me to navigate self-identity because being Black and being White, I’m always cautious of pushing or acting out on any privilege for being a biracial student, or overstepping my boundaries in jumping on African American issues.”
As part of the region’s “Future Stars” in last year’s publication of “Who’s Who in Black Pittsburgh,” she embraces her challenges as opportunities to grow.
Gretchen Generett, associate professor and director of University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA) Center for Educational Leadership and Social Justice at Duquesne University, became a mentor to Ciara a few years ago and shares thoughts about the teen as a leader.
“What is exciting to watch in this young woman is not only how she is a sponge when it comes to learning, but as a leader, she is always including others in learning,” Generett says. “When I invited her to attend a conference with me, she came back with several of her friends telling me she’d like them to attend as well. Additionally, the benefit of this mentor/mentee relationship is reciprocal—I always look forward to what she ends up teaching me.”
She has her eyes on one of three schools: Spelman College, Howard University and possibly Harvard University. Even as she eyes college, she remains interested in working for equity in education from kindergarten through high school.
Ciara lives in Spring Hill with her father, mother Heather Sing, and younger sister Makenzie.
“We know she stays busy, and we’d maybe even like to see her having more fun, but we did teach her that everything she does now will determine the kind of life she will have later,” Samuel Sing adds.
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Generation NEXT…Ciara Sing fights for equity for African-American students
