Bringing color into the classroom, business and computer science teacher Damon George enlisted seniors Ju Kim, Kelly Pentz and Madi Sedgwick to paint murals in room 312.

“When you look around and see off white walls and fluorescent lighting, the thought was let’s do something about it to give students a better environment and maybe they’ll be more productive,” George said.

The idea came to him last year, and in the fall he was able to implement it with a cross-curricular approach, taking students from Future Business Leaders of America who were also in art classes.

“I thought it would be cool if we took the space and made it something that would be interesting to look at, but then also a project that the students could use to attract more students to the business and computer science room in all different courses,” George said.

Beginning in November, Pentz recalled that it took about three weeks to sketch and get necessary supplies. The trio decided to paint the Future Business Leaders of America symbol, a lion and a table with business students around it. Despite all the work and time that went in, Pentz enjoyed it.

“It was fun to see our friends come and kind of help us out and a bunch of teachers were coming in to see the process and what was going on,” Pentz said.

After finishing the murals in 312, Kim remarked that she would be willing to paint other teachers’ classrooms.

“I also think that it would be a good idea to encourage more students to get involved as well,” Kim said.

George has said that he wants more art in his room after positive feedback from students.

“[Students] would much rather come into an environment where they feel comfortable and are inspired to be creative,” George said.

Other teachers have started taking the initiative to make the halls more colorful. National English Honor Society began three years ago to paint the lockers with book spines of favorite novels throughout Dulaney.

“No one uses the lockers and they don’t really serve a purpose. It is nice to have something there that is beautiful instead of gray and ugly,” English teacher Britta Schaffmeyer said.

Schaffmeyer further discussed the benefits of having art in the halls.

“I think that it’s easy to feel that people don’t care about you when you’re in high school. You can feel like things don’t matter and seeing the gray landscape throughout the building exacerbates that feeling,” she said.