Leave Your Mark
What will your class leave behind? Launch a yearlong student-designed project by asking: What could we create now that will still be growing after we leave? "Growing" might be literal: a garden, tree, or flowers that return every year. Or create something that continues to shape the school: a bench, mural, sculpture, mosaic, gathering space, or something entirely original. Students dream, design, get approval, fundraise if needed, and create throughout the year, then unveil the finished Legacy Project during the spring S4D Capstone/Portfolio celebration.
Depending on the project:
- School/admin and facilities approval
- A student design and planning team
- A permanent or long-term location
- Design, planting, or building materials
- A project timeline, budget, and fundraising/sponsorship plan (if needed)
- Adult or community expertise when appropriate
- A plan for installation, care, and maintenance
- Optional: art, CTE, construction, design, horticulture, environmental science, engineering, or other class partners
Dignity asks us to recognize that we are part of something larger than ourselves. We inherit places, traditions, stories, and communities from people who came before us, and our choices shape what the people who come after us will inherit. A Legacy Project asks students to listen, make decisions together, consider whose experiences are represented, and create something that contributes to the school long after they leave. The finished project becomes a reminder: we were here. We cared about this place and its people. We left something for you.
- Start with the legacy questions. Ask: What could we create now that will still be growing, helping, welcoming, connecting, or reminding people after we leave?
- Look at your school differently. Walk the campus — where do people gather or avoid? What feels welcoming or forgotten? What spaces have stories?
- Listen before designing. Ask students, staff, alumni, and others what would make the school more welcoming, connected, meaningful, or beautiful.
- Learn what came before you. Are there school traditions, people, places, plants, objects, or stories worth preserving or carrying forward?
- Dream big. Brainstorm without worrying about cost or logistics yet. What could dignity become if it were a place, object, living thing, or piece of art?
- Choose together. Narrow the ideas based on meaning, feasibility, accessibility, cost, location, care, and long-term impact.
- Build the plan. Get approval, create a budget and timeline, assign roles, fundraise if needed, and recruit people who can help.
- Create it. Build, paint, plant, fabricate, restore, install, or bring the idea to life.
- Preserve its story. Document where the idea came from, who created it, what it represents, and why it matters.
- Leave your mark. Unveil or dedicate the finished project during the spring Capstone/Portfolio celebration and mark the year or class that created it.
Important: Permanent and living projects may require additional approval for location, construction, accessibility, safety, irrigation, maintenance, fundraising, or donated materials. Involve school leadership and facilities staff early on.
Create a Legacy Project that grows with every future S4D class. The founding class might build the garden, sculpture, walkway, wall, or installation; future groups might add another plant, brick, tile, panel, story, or contribution.
Partner with local artists, builders, businesses, alumni, or community organizations to help design, fund, and create it. Over time, the project becomes a living history of dignity at your school, with each generation leaving something for the next.
Legacy doesn't have to be enormous or expensive. Plant perennial flowers near a bench where people gather. Add a tree. Paint approved stones for a garden. Create a small piece of permanent student art. Install a plaque beside a meaningful place. Restore or improve something at the school that already carries a story. Permanent doesn't have to mean concrete and metal. Sometimes permanence is something that comes back every spring.
Before you decide what to create, start by noticing what is already in place.
Every school has stories. Sometimes leaving your mark starts by recognizing the marks others left before you. Think through yours and ask:
- What places or traditions matter to people here?
- What has been here for generations?
- What has disappeared or changed?
- Who helped make this school what it is?
- Are there stories newer students might never know?
- Is there something worth preserving, restoring, or carrying forward?
Walk your campus with fresh eyes. Ask:
- Where do people gather?
- Where might someone feel alone?
- What spaces feel welcoming?
- What spaces feel forgotten?
- What could be more beautiful, useful, connected, peaceful, or alive?
- What does our school actually need?
Imagine someone walking through your school 10 years from now. What could your class create that they would still use, see, enjoy, care for, add to, or tell a story about?
Ask: What could we create now that will still be growing after we leave?
Don't start with the budget. If time, money, and logistics didn't matter, what would you create? Could you build something? Paint something? Plant something? Restore something? Could you create a place where people connect? Could you preserve a story people shouldn't forget? Dream first, edit later.
Take your strongest ideas and ask:
- Meaning: Why does this matter?
- Story: Is there a person, place, tradition, or history connected to it?
- People: Who will use, see, or experience it?
- Place: Where will it live?
- Access: Can everyone experience or participate in it?
- Materials: What will it take to create?
- Cost: How much will it cost?
- Care: Who will maintain it?
- Longevity: What might happen to it in 5, 10, or 20 years?
- Future: Could another S4D class care for it? Continue it? Or add something new?
Create a simple proposal for school leadership:
- Here's what we want to create
- Here's the story behind it
- Here's why it matters
- Here's where it will go
- Here's what it will cost
- Here's how we'll create and care for it
- Here's what we hope it leaves behind
Be prepared for questions, feedback, revisions, or even "no" or "not right now." Permanent projects can involve considerations you may not know about, from safety and maintenance, to budgets and future plans for the school. A "no" doesn't necessarily mean the idea isn't valued.
Listen to the concerns, ask questions, find out what might be possible. Then, revise, adapt, or dream again. Creating something together sometimes means being willing to change the original idea while holding onto the purpose behind it.
Don't start by choosing from this list! Start by asking what your school needs, what stories already live there, and what your class wants to leave for the people who come next. But, if the blank page is staring back at you, here are some ideas to get you started:
Dignity Garden: Create a garden with perennial flowers or native plants that return year after year.
Legacy Tree: Plant a tree in an approved location and dedicate it to something your class wants future students to remember.
Generational Garden: Create a garden that future S4D groups help care for and add to each year.
Plants With a Story: Is there a plant, tree, flower, or natural feature connected to your school or community's history? Preserve, propagate, or replant something meaningful so its story continues.
Belonging Bench: Design or build a permanent bench in a place where students gather, wait, or sometimes sit alone.
Connection Table: Create a painted or engraved outdoor table designed as a welcoming place for anyone to sit.
Conversation Space: Create seating arranged specifically to encourage people to face and talk with each other.
Reflection Space: Transform an overlooked corner of campus into a place where people can pause, gather, read, talk, or just be.
Dignity Mural: Design a permanent mural representing your school's vision of dignity.
Community Mosaic: Create a large installation from student-designed ceramic tiles or other individual pieces.
Sculpture: Work with art, welding, woodworking, ceramics, or CTE students to create an original piece.
Student Art Installation: Create something specifically designed for the architecture, landscape, or story of your school.
Restore Something: Repair, repaint, replant, or bring new life to something that has meaning in your school.
Tell the Story of a Place: Create an installation, plaque, artwork, QR experience, or display explaining why a particular place matters.
Honor Someone Who Came Before: Recognize a teacher, staff member, student, alumnus, community member, or group whose contribution deserves to be remembered.
Carry Something Forward: Preserve a meaningful school tradition, object, plant, story, or symbol and find a way for future students to continue it.
Dignity Walk: Install engraved bricks, stones, or tiles and add new pieces every year.
Legacy Wall: Create a permanent installation where each S4D class contributes one new panel, plate, tile, or piece.
Growing Sculpture: Design the original structure so each graduating class adds another element.
Living Legacy: Let each S4D class add a new plant, tree, garden feature, or other living contribution.
Maybe your legacy isn't primarily decorative. Could you create:
- A more welcoming entrance?
- An outdoor gathering area?
- A free little library?
- A student resource station?
- A permanent new-student welcome space?
- An accessibility improvement?
- A recognition wall?
- A quiet or reflection space?
- A place for student voices or artwork?
- Something your school hasn't thought of yet?
Ask: What could we create that people will actually use?
However you mark the project, preserve its story. Include the year, student creators, and an explanation of what was created, why it mattered, and what your class hoped to leave behind. Then, if possible, leave room for the next group. Your legacy doesn't have to end when you graduate. You can create something the next generation gets to inherit, care for, and continue.
Full designed PDF with the complete Dream + Design Guide and all seven idea categories — see the download button above.