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After a raucous relay race to see which team could create the longest list of world issues first, 12 high school students sat down to read the results of their thinking.

The students were taking part in Telling Your Own Story, an after school acting class for at-risk youth sponsored by the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County working with Round House Theatre in Silver Spring and the Maryland Multicultural Youth Center.

‘‘The concept is to provide creative space for [the students] to find themselves, understand their place in the community and the world and give them a chance to explore those things through the arts,” Howard Spector, program creator and education director at the Arts and Humanities Council, said.

Program instructor Meredith King next asked the students to create a tableau depicting the problem of immigration, one of the issues on their list.

Each team worked together to create a statement using only body language. The students showed the pain and heartbreak of immigration in their tableaux of people running, hiding and being taken away against their will. Was it a picture of what causes people to immigrate or the problem they face once they do? There were no answers, the students were telling a story, not solving a problem.

Katya Hernandez, 17, of Takoma Park, a junior at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring had suggested immigration for the first tableau.

‘‘I am an immigrant myself from El Salvador,” she said. ‘‘English is not the most difficult thing when you come [to this country], it is when people discriminate against you.”

Learning to tell her story has helped Hernandez become more comfortable with herself and others.

She is very enthusiastic about the program and has encouraged others to join.

‘‘It’s a great program,” Hernandez said. ‘‘It is more than Hispanic, it’s all races. It helps us socialize and we don’t have to only socialize with our own culture.”

Carlos Eyzaguirre, 16, of Silver Spring, a junior at Blair, recently joined the group.

‘‘Its very creative, a fun way to express yourself,” he said. ‘‘It gives me something to do [after school] instead of going home and watching TV.”

The group had to learn to work together as a team, something they have never had to do before, King said.

‘‘I can see an immediate change in the way they work as a group,” she said.

Closeness and sense of fun were not always part of the dynamic between these students, Sandra Martinez, program specialist for the youth council, said.

‘‘Before they were so angry, they had a bad attitude,” she said. ‘‘Now I see them opening up, speaking differently.”

Keeping students busy after school is a major benefit of the program, Spector said.

‘‘The idea is to get the kids involved, to give children [ages] 11-18 positive alternatives to getting involved in delinquent behavior,” he said.

The students agreed on the benefits of the free program.

‘‘It gives us all a place to come and hang out together and I’ve basically learned to accept other people,” said Claudia Rivas, 18, of Takoma Park, a senior at Blair.

The attention of King and the other adults involved helps the students express their feelings.

‘‘They need someone who cares, who gives positive feedback. That’s what causes them to change their attitudes,” Martinez said.

This is the second semester of the program for most of the students. In the fall, they worked at the Pyramid Atlantic Art Center in Silver Spring learning to make paper then creating books and, finally, filling the pages of the books with their stories.

In addition to the Round House Theatre and Pyramid Atlantic programs, other arts organizations that work with at-risk students through the humanities council are Montgomery Community Television, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange and The Writers Center.