Glen Rock High School, built in 1956, has been a highly regarded high school for decades. Recipient of the Blue Ribbon Schools program award in 2018 and ranked 39th for public schools in New Jersey, Glen Rock is quite an impressive school. However, although undergoing extensive renovations in 2011, the high school’s physical interior has not been updated since. Specifically, the beat-up, wooden doors that line each hallway. This is why when Mrs. Walter and some students in graphic design proposed the idea to create beautiful, yet historically representative decals for some of the doors in the B Hallway, the HSA was in full support.
The entire process started in January last school year when Mrs. Walter and some students in graphic design made a version of the door decals out of paper for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. With positive feedback from the GRHS student body and staff, Mrs. Walter wanted to make the students’ designs a little more permanent than paper.
“The girls did a presentation to the HSA, and the HSA loved it. They loved the presentation and liked the idea because they always want to make the school better. And they just were so happy with what we did, and with how the doors ended up looking.” Mrs. Walter conveyed.
The idea for the door decals sparked from a Facebook page for history teachers after a mutual friend posted a picture of their school’s door. Mrs. Walter loved the idea and knew she could turn it into something inspirational that heightened the “wow” factor at Glen Rock.
“That’s where the idea came from, is that we want it to be inspiring. We want it to be people, that would influence kids, and would be kind of a broad view of humanity.”
Narrowing down the historical figures that got chosen to go on the doors was not an easy task, but Mrs. Walter and her team of over 20 students handled it perfectly.
“We wanted to make sure that it was diverse in all areas, and we wanted to have the kids make sure that it’s inspiring, you know, positive messages. So that’s how we decided and then the kids decided” Mrs. Walter explained.
Some of the influential figures featured on the doors are Malala, Albert Einstein, Louis Zamperini, Greta Thornburg, and countless others. All icons, heroes, and leaders who have left a lasting impact on the world. Contrary to finding these historical figures, the design of the doors was just as difficult to accomplish. Juniors Mia Benyamin and Melina McAllister both heavily contributed to the overall appearance, from the color schemes to the quotes and pictures chosen.
“Mrs. Walter and Ms. Jones had Melina and I, along with all of the other students there, use a template on Canva to make just one door that we were assigned. Melina and I were assigned Michael Jordan. Eventually, we found ourselves drifting completely from what we were supposed to be doing and ended up playing around with Photoshop and completely ignoring the Canva template. Honestly, I thought that we’d get in trouble, but our advisors loved how we went above and beyond. They decided to let us lead the project after this.” Benyamin shared.
But Mrs. Walter and her team don’t want to stop in the B Hallway; their plan is to spread their amazing door decals to every door in the school. With such a versatile idea, the only thing stopping them is funding.
“We did a little bit of fundraising ourselves that we paid for two out of the 11 doors. But it took me a while to find a printing company that was going to do it for a good amount of money, and with what we had to spend.”
The addition of these doors adds such a beautiful touch to the hallways, along with spurts of inspiration for the students and teachers of GRHS to be welcomed with when coming into the school and walking down the B Hallway.
“Mia and I agree, Michael Jordan is definitely our favorite door out of all of them. I personally just love Michael Jordan so having him on a door in our school is really cool to see. It was also the first door design Mia and I worked on together so it was really amazing to see it come together.” McAllister remarked.
