Melbourne High

In Ms. Denine Chang’s second-period Business and Entrepreneurship class, students worked on a project that meant something special to 15 alumni. In 1976, the Liberty Bell, which originally sat outside the Mid-Century Modern campus, was created by a group of 15 students in the Building Trades Class. The project took over a year, and the finished Liberty Bell was dedicated on June 9, 1976. Fifty years later, Ms. Chang’s class was tasked with planning a rededication ceremony and celebration to commemorate the members of the Masonry class who designed and built the Liberty Bell.

“I think giving such a task is really important to us and really related to the school, and really for others to see we worked on the Liberty Bell and it’s part of our school,” said senior Ruby Vanderwyst. There were eight groups in the class, each with a different role, such as coordinating with the Band and ROTC to designing flyers and T-shirts for the event. “My group is Marketing and Communications, and we work a lot with social media, external and internal advertising, designing flyers and posts, and other communications,” sophomore, Alicia Wademan said. “Our team is Oversight, so we are kind of conducting what everyone else does to make sure they stay on task,” said Vanderwyst.

Students in the class were certified project managers and worked on large projects throughout the school year. “At the beginning of the year, we worked on getting our certifications in project management, then we worked on getting our coffee business for the school running, called Big Dawg Coffee,” Vanderwyst said. Students planned out workloads and schedules to ensure the project moved smoothly and deadlines were met for the May 23 event.

To the students, working on such a large project meant a lot to them. “I hope to see that all the Bell Boys get to meet each other again and that our class learns a lot from this project and for all the alumni to reconnect and for everyone to come together,” said Wademan. “I think giving such a task is really important to us and really related to the school, and really for others to see we worked on the Liberty Bell and it’s part of our school,” said Vanderwyst.

Replicating the Past: Junior, Vivian Clifford, creates a new rededication program that keeps the same feel and design of the original 1976 program. Clifford’s group was in charge of designing the program and working on other visuals and site logistics. “Our team is working on program, speeches, and security. My favorite task in the group is making the program,” said Clifford.

Photo by Kyle McLaren