Kind. Funny. Smart. Confident. Every person has unique characteristics that make up their own personality, and through an annual project, psychology students evaluate themselves by creating their own personality masks.

“Every year in my psychology classes, students get a papier-mache mask and we create what is called a personality mask,” Psychology teacher Miguel Mercado said. “Students take six facets of their personality, and they document it through symbolization. They do a little write-up of what everything represents, and it tends to be one of the more popular projects that I do in my psychology classes.”

The personality masks stand out from other school assignments because they reflect each student’s unique identity through drawings, embellishments, and more. 

“[My favorite part of this project is] how different the masks end up and how great of a representation they are for the different kids,” Coach Mercado said. “It becomes a pretty fun project for me to grade.”

No personality mask is exactly the same, and each mask reveals information about the students that may not have been expected before.

“There’s been some kids that really surprised me with how detailed they are with their mask, how other kids really show a different side of them, and I like the broadness of the project,” Coach Mercado said.

Junior Destini Amos decorated her mask with storm clouds, lightning bolts, and cartoon features to represent the nighttime half of her personality. 

“At nighttime, there’s more to think about,” Amos said. “At the calm side, you can analyze and get more in tune with yourself, and then the more chaotic side is like the bad side of being able to really inwardly analyze yourself.”

In contrast, junior Olivia Garcia portrayed her personality with bright aspects like the sun, flowers, and glitter.

“I’m putting a sun in the middle to represent my happy, optimistic side,” Garcia said. “And I was gonna put a vinyl record to represent my old soul because I like old stuff.”

This project replaced the usual busywork of psychology class with a calm, artistic experience, along with giving students the opportunity to discover what expresses them as people.

“The whole purpose of this project is for them to evaluate their personalities and to document it and basically have an analytical look at how they are and what represents them, so I think it’s good for each kid to do that,” Coach Mercado said.