Providencia Elementary School unveiled a colorful new mural at a school-wide assembly on Thursday, April 23. School officials and students thanked Nickelodeon and its spring semester group of interns, or Nickterns, for creating the vibrant mural.
“When I found out that Providencia was selected to receive the mural I was thrilled!” commented Providencia Principal Jen Culbertson. “I relish any chance for us to work with community partners to help beautify our school.”
Culbertson polled staff and teachers at the school for ideas and many of the responses led to the theme of peace and good citizenship.
“We use the Peace Builders program on our campus to help students understand the importance of building peace in our school and community,” explained Culbertson. “The Peace Builders tenants teach our children how to seek wise people, give up put downs, right their wrongs, build peace.”
“We also have a program called Peaceful Playgrounds that focuses on students being involved in games, following the rules, playing safely and solving conflicts appropriately during recess and lunch.”
“We thought it would be neat to write the word ‘peace’ in multiple languages since Providencia’s community is quite diverse,” continued Culbertson. “Since we are one of the only elementary schools in Burbank to have a comprehensive K-5 weekly music program, we also wanted to showcase that… in some way…. as it is one of our signature practices that we are quite proud of.”
Culbertson met with Nickterns Kayla Rimes and Amit Kumar, who developed several designs with the entire group of interns. Providencia staff then voted for the winning design.
“I am so impressed with how the mural turned out. At the top it says ‘We are Peace Builders’ and the word peace is written in multiple languages,” said Culbertson. “There is a large globe painted in the center. There are kids playing on the right side. On the left side are large music notes. The background is a colorful rainbow.”
“The end result is amazing! It is simple and colorful, yet the message is quite clear. Providencia students are Peace Builders,” she also said. “They learn together, they play together and they build peace together both in our school and in our community. I can’t thank the Nickterns enough for creating something that will be a part of our school for years to come.”
The 2015 spring semester group of Nickterns includes: Natasha Barredo, Lilliana Barzaga, Art Castleton, Darlene Chaves, Stephanie Degiovanni, Diem Doan, Ashley Donovan, Hayley Garden, Amelia Giller, Ben Haist, Danielle Henning, Laila Idriss, Christine Kim, Lauren Krieger, Amit Kumar, Olivia Lee, Marissa Lowry, Gizelle Orbino, Kayla Rimes, Alexis Siegel, Josh Suarez, Sonika Suri, Kelsey van der Bergh and Jarrett Wegelin.
“Throughout the week that the Nickterns were on campus working on the mural, our students would engage with them and ask tons of questions,” Culbertson added. “I found all the interns to be kind, friendly and professional.”
The Nickterns used seven basic colors in the mural design and applied the paint with rollers and brushes. Teams of three or four people painted at a time during the week of April 13 – 17.
“It was great working with the Nickterns to create this mural,” commented Kumar, one of the Nickelodeon interns who worked on the collaborative project. “It was a true effort by all of us, including Kayla Rimes who redesigned the children on the right side of the mural and Lauren Krieger who redesigned the globe in the middle.”
“The most exciting and satisfying part of the painting process was seeing and hearing how excited the children were to see us painting,” added Kumar. “At the end of the day, we were doing it for the children and to make sure they had something they could look at every day and enjoy.”
