Riverside Students Collaborate on Mural to Celebrate DLI Program Milestone

Overview: Students from Mountain View Elementary, Jefferson Elementary, and Sierra Middle School collaborated to create a mural at Ramona High School, Riverside, California, to celebrate the first graduating cohort of students who completed the Dual Language Immersion program. The mural highlights Riverside’s history and will be displayed at the third annual Body of Freedom Exhibition in March 2026. The project aligns with Ramona’s mission of community-based social justice art and emphasizes the importance of art in storytelling, collaboration, creativity, and community building.

Aryana Noroozi

As  2025 comes to a close, Riverside Unified School District (RUSD) students of all ages came together to create a mural highlighting Riverside’s history. 

The idea for the mural was born directly out of Ramona High School’s role as Riverside’s only magnet school for the visual and performing arts – and its initiative to weave the arts into the district’s Dual Language Immersion (DLI) pathway program. As a magnet school for the arts, Ramona High School is committed to community partnership, festivals and master classes that immerse RUSD students in the creative process.

The mural served as a celebration and connector of the first graduating cohort of students who traveled the K-12 in the DLI program all the way through their senior year at Ramona High School. The program leaders imagined that this pathway needed a public, collaborative way to mark that journey. 

The project was centered on collaboration, combining DLI students from Mountain View Elementary, Jefferson Elementary, and Sierra Middle School. This collaboration aligned with Ramona’s long-standing mission of community-based social justice art.

Erin Maroufkhani, Riverside Unified Magnet Coordinator, explained, in community art there will always be a focus on social justice as well as making the creation process accessible to all artists in the community regardless of age or ability.

The mural will be displayed at the third annual Body of Freedom Exhibition on March 6, 2026 at the Center for Social Justice and Civil Liberties in downtown Riverside. It will be among other artwork displayed, all created under Ramona High School’s partnership with Division Nine Gallery and other partners in Downtown Riverside.

“Art is storytelling. Art is collaborative. It’s creative and it’s community building,” Maroufkhani said. “So what I really hope that the students get out of this is that art is important and that it’s meaningful in that it takes many people to put it together.”