To mark the successful conclusion of Colorado Academy’s inaugural student-led Culture & Community Week in the Upper School, March 17-21, 2025, faculty, staff, and students came together to celebrate the unveiling of a room-sized mural created by volunteers to communicate identity, expression, and change within the Upper School cultural affinity and ally space, known as the “Pod.”
Leading up to the event, the members of CA’s CCSL—Culture & Community Student Leadership—had organized a week’s worth of activities and performances highlighting themes of individual identity and belonging, core values of the Upper School experience now reflected in the Pod space.
According to Senior CCSL leader Aziza Diallo, “As the mural came together, a lot of people realized that this is definitely a space that we all share. That’s its purpose—we want everyone to be able to feel comfortable here. Diverse students can come here and just feel safe and relaxed, and allies and friends can join, too. I’m super proud of what the space has become. It truly reflects the community that’s formed here.”
Along with fellow CCSL Senior leaders—Simone Leech, Gabriel Miranda-Ogaz, Mattias Pereira, and Sora Sohn—Diallo collaborated with studio art Instructor Leilani Abeyta ’18 over the course of months to help envision and refine the design for the painted mural and coordinate the efforts of dozens of student, faculty, and staff volunteers.
Says Abeyta, “As a CA graduate, the whole process has been a really great opportunity for me to reflect as I’m entering a new phase of my life as an artist. Being paired with students who are in the exact same place I was not too long ago has been inspiring every moment along the way.”
Ninth Grade Dean and Director of Upper School Culture & Community Dr. Camille James notes that Abeyta’s dedication to the project has been critical. “For me to see the students come here day after day to engage with Leilani, it’s almost too perfect,” she attests. “They’re spending time with someone who lived this space before—she’s an alum of color who used the Pod when she was a student. It’s truly a full circle.”
Renaissance reimagined
Back in December 2024, when Abeyta and Diallo were taking in the sparsely decorated beige walls of the existing Pod space at the beginning of the process, they settled on the theme of “Renaissance Reimagined” to guide work on the mural. They knew, however, that whatever the eventual outcome, it would rest in the hands of community volunteers.
“That’s the reason we chose the Renaissance,” explains Abeyta. “Those grand halls and libraries from history weren’t created all at once; they were made year after year by many contributors, with people adding to them constantly.”
Reimagining the Renaissance, Diallo adds, meant wondering what the ornate, classically-inspired spaces of the 15th and 16th centuries might have looked like had they been designed by people from diverse backgrounds. With an architectural backdrop sketched out by Abeyta, community members from across the Upper School were invited to add images, artifacts, symbols, and other elements inspired by their own lives and cultures.
“The more people got invested in the space, the more personalized it became,” recounts Diallo.
A life-sized painting of an antique red armchair in one corner came from an artist’s trove of family memories; a detailed depiction of a Colombian farmhouse was based on a cherished photo. Portraits that dot the four walls of the Pod portray friends, relatives, and historical figures, and small flags represent countries, heroes, and fantasy worlds. Painted books on painted bookshelves range from Chemistry to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and everything in between.
“That’s what’s so great about what this space has become,” Abeyta says. “When people come here, we get to have conversations that spark new ideas. I’m just so stunned and excited about all the individual contributions.”
The mural is far from a completed, static work, she notes. As students continue to visit throughout the year, and as new high schoolers arrive at the Upper School in the years to come, the walls will continually evolve, mirroring all the individuals who have appreciated the Pod, as well as preserving and displaying the history of all those who have passed through.
“My hope,” says James, “is that in future years, students will come back to visit, to see how this space has changed, and add something else of themselves.”
Speaking truth to power
That the mural isn’t just a one-off creative burst, but instead represents an ongoing opportunity for community building from year to year, was underscored throughout the Culture & Community Week that led up to its unveiling. Designed by the CCSL members, the five days of learning and sharing encouraged all Upper Schoolers to engage with each other to celebrate differences, bond across grades and cultures, and explore what belonging means to them.
A special Town Hall performance by Seniors in the Leach Center for the Performing Arts took the theme “Speaking Truth to Power,” encapsulating the spirit of the week by shining a spotlight on individual students’ CA experiences. Diallo, Miranda-Ogaz, and Sohn, along with Johanna Mata, one of the leaders of the school’s Latine affinity group, took turns reading from pieces they had developed with the support of Penumbra Theatre Company, a nationally recognized organization based in St. Paul, Minn.
As Upper School Principal Max Delgado explained, “This is the second year of our collaboration with Penumbra, the only Black professional theater company in the U.S. We partnered with Penumbra because the ideas of belonging and self-expression are core to their inclusive mission.”
In their own words, the Seniors drew attention to the many different ways they experienced their own identities within the larger CA community. One speaker noted the frequent mispronunciation of her name; another recalled how the shifting national discussion about immigration seemed to change the atmosphere within her family home from love and joy to fear and anxiety. One student talked about realizing in First Grade that other children thought dark skin meant that someone was dirty; and another recounted trying to distance himself from his cultural identity at school, only to discover it is one of the things he is most proud of.
“I will never be hurt for being who I am,” one student concluded. “I’m excited for too much. I can’t wait to go to college and experience good things, to see more people just like me and talk to them about their experiences, relate and empathize, or just listen and learn. I can’t wait to teach others about my story. I’m so excited to be myself. I’m lucky: lucky to be surrounded by amazing people, amazing family and friends, lucky to have people who never gave up on me, lucky that I have people who I love and love me back.”
“There are so many people who need the new Pod space,” Diallo observes. “It’s something that I feel is sacred for a lot of us.”
But as James pointed out to the Upper School audience at the conclusion of the performance—and as the volunteer-decorated walls of the community mural make vividly clear—“We all have culture, and we’re all part of our community. We all want to share and to build our community together.”
