A travelin’ teen: Warren sophomore loves the arts and travel, recently went to Rome

Ava Johnson spent three weeks in Italy this summer where she got to visit the Colosseum in Rome.

VINCENT — Ava Johnson is a confident, charismatic 15 year old who will be a sophomore at Warren High School this year.

She’s a member of the Warren Warriors swim team, on the student council, a science olympiad, is a cum laude member of the honor roll, took part in theatre her freshman year, has participated in multiple programs including Upward Bound, I Believe, she was in the children’s choir, participated in the Camp Vaudeville program at the Smoot Theatre for two years, was a member of band her fifth and sixth grade years, is teaching herself guitar and piano, and just recently returned from studying abroad in Italy through the CIEE (the Council on International Educational Exchange) Global Navigator program.

“The one I went to Italy was a Global Discovery, which is studying the history through arts,” Johnson said. “So that was really cool that I got the historical part, along with the art part, along with a lot of other things. We did so much in three weeks.”

This was a program Johnson researched, applied for acceptance and scholarships for, and took part in all of her own volition.

It was a process that took almost a year to accomplish. Her original goal was to visit Japan after studying Japanese for several years but travel to that country was still restricted this summer due to COVID-19.

“For awhile everything was closed because of the pandemic. So finally last summer I waited so long for that Japan application to open, and I applied for the scholarship and everything,” Johnson said. “I did get a scholarship, but I didn’t get into Japan. But I think it worked out in the end, I really enjoyed Rome.”

Johnson got to visit museums, art galleries, got to sight see, took cooking and art classes, visited local book stores, an amusement park, and she got to visit the towns of Florence and Tivoli where she spent some time at Villa d’Este.

“Rome is a busy town, so the first week I was kind of overwhelmed by that. All the cars going by and the rustling, and then we went to the city outside of Rome (Tivoli), and it was silent. I did not see any cars,” Johnson said. “It was so nice to have that break. And the pasta was super good.” She got to see the statue of David in Florence, the fountains in Tivoli, the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City, and the Colosseum in Rome. She talked about how her tour guide was a history professor and would point out things she wouldn’t normally have noticed.

“In the Colosseum she pointed out that there was this area, and at first glance it you’re like, ‘it’s bricks, it’s old bricks’ and then when you paid more attention, the right side looked more run-down and the left side looked like newer bricks, and she was talking about how the Colosseum was being built again and again, because sometimes things would fall apart and the Romans would rebuild it,” Johnson said.

“It was really cool for her to point that out in real life and be like, ‘pay attention to it’, and it’s everywhere in Rome. Just modern things next to ancient things.”

Johnson realized during her time in theatre and drama class, and doing the sound for the schools production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” that she would like to pursue a career in film or science.

“I’m really interested in film,” Johnson said. “I like science and researching things so I kind of want to go into a career that does a lot of research. And one that I’m kind of thinking about is finding cures for diseases. I’m actually going to a job shadowing for that soon.”

In her free time Johnson enjoys reading, painting, drawing, and is really into anime and manga.

“I read a lot of manga and watch anime. I like a lot of reading,” Johnson said. “I like looking at the art styles because I do a lot of drawing and painting, and it’s so cool to see, especially manga and anime, I like how it’s differently animated and drawn. I think it’s a really cool process. And then along with the whole character development plot. I really like looking at that stuff and being like, ‘Oh, this is interesting’ and the different tropes.

“I don’t want to make a job off of my art, I’m happy with this as a canvas, and then if someone wants it, just give me $5.”

Douglass Huxley can be reached at [email protected]

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