Or their shoes.

O'Neal, 24, recently returned to Gilbert from a seven-month stint teaching children at St. Joseph's and St. Mary's Schools for the Deaf how to use photography as a tool of expression.

She gave her students assignments designed to inspire creativity - taking pictures of their shoes - and writing a story to go with their shoes.

"The idea was, 'Look how much you can tell about yourself by your shoes,' " O'Neal said.

One student took the assignment further, telling the story of his sister's shoes.

The Gilbert High graduate said she was so moved by her experiences that she plans to explore her options in teaching and art therapy.

O'Neal's photography degree and American Sign Language courses from University of Arizona made her the ideal candidate for a Fulbright Scholar program to teach multimedia projects to deaf students in Ireland.

She said she plans to return to Chicago where she works as a children's portrait photographer and possibly attend graduate school.

The best part of her experience in Ireland was a gallery show of her pictures and her students' work that she organized in Dublin, she said.

"The kids were just smiling the whole time," O'Neal said.

She said she knew she had made a difference when the parents of one of her shyest students pulled her aside at the gallery show and told her they wanted to buy their son a camera because photography had brought him out of his shell.

Another student, an autistic boy, proved to be one of her best students.

By Cary Aspinwall, The Arizona Republic