A colorful new chapter
Grace Turner, staff writer
Photo courtesy of Callie Meyerholtz
Emerging from over 200 hours of work, a splash of paint and a passion for education, a new mural has taken its place in the Foster education building on the North Greenville University campus.
The mural now covers the walls of the inner stairwell that leads to foster’s bottom floor. The artwork depicts a bookshelf laden with items designed to represent areas of study all over the school. Maps, theatre masks, a microscope and a paint pallet are just a few of the items featured on the shelves.
Amongst the items, the mural also contains a group of bookworms interacting with and discovering the many items the shelves have to offer.
Senior studio art major Laura Cervantez said, “Our goal with it was to help people see the joys of education and be inspired by it.”
The creation of the mural began four years ago when the chair of the art department, Hayley De González began conversations with the education department about needing something to decorate the space. She then brought the NGU art club in, and they began to throw out ideas for what it could become.
After the idea phase real progress was made when studio art majors Laura Cervantez and Callie Meyerholtz became presidents of the club in the spring of 2024, at the end of their sophomore year. Now at the mural’s completion Cervantez and Meyerholtz are in their senior year set to graduate in May of 2026.
As the heads of the project, the two set to work creating sketches and brainstorming what they wanted in the space. They also began securing all the needed approvals to commence on the project.
Next, a pencil sketch of the mural was put on the wall starting in the fall of 2024. The original image of the mural had shelves reaching from floor to ceiling in the stairwell, however, due to complications with scaffolding the artists had to choose a new route. Now the unfinished shelves portray the sense that the bookworms are building it.
“It is like they are the one’s making it come to life,” said Meyerholtz.
Paint hit the wall in the fall of 2025 and Cervantez and Meyerholtz, now joined by junior art major Bella Kuckle,worked full steam ahead. The team dedicated time on their Christmas break, working over 10 hour days to make progress on the mural.
Meyerholtz said her favorite part of the work was painting on all the little details from addressed postcards to personalized sticky notes. The wall displays complex math equations and even the handprints of the three artists contained in the frame of a children’s craft.
Through weekends and late nights, the mural was completed in the spring of 2026 with a special unveiling celebration April 1. The unveiling event included worm themed snacks and a scavenger hunt through the details of the mural with the prize of a free worm adoption for the winners.
The bookworm adoption program was formed to help raise funds for the creation of the mural. Through a donation, sponsors were given the opportunity to name and create a backstory for their worm. Now all the bookworms have been adopted by faculty and students, and their stories can be read by scanning the QR code at the bottom of the stairwell.
One of the faculty members who adopted a worm on the mural was Constance Wright, the dean of the college of education. Wright has been able to see the mural come to life from the very beginning.
“You smile when you walk down the steps,” said Wright, “I mean the college of education is just overjoyed, thrilled and fascinated by the gifts that God has given those students and just honored that we get to see that every day.”
Through hearing the warm reception of the mural, the artists say they are proud of the biggest project they have ever done.
