Social workers are usually figuratively “painted” as better people, but today students from Wichita’s East High School will literally paint a mural to thank them for their work in the community.

Assistant professor Natalie Grant said the idea for the mural came from an acquaintance, Melody Duram, who works at East High as a para-educator, a position that is meant to help and support teachers.

Duram was interested in working with the social services due to their work with community service already. 

“I have a class where we have service learning projects,” Grant said.

Grant said that she was contacted by Duram because of the community work Grant’s class does and she had a group that does the same thing. 

Duram works with a group of students who search for group service projects.

The students are mostly seniors involved in a program called “Aces in the Community” who regularly perform community service activities.

Grant said the idea was jointly created and meant to highlight the work of social work. The murals design will bear the words, “WSU social work coming full circle,” and feature handprints of the students across the mural.

“In social work we’re all about people coming full circle … I think it really symbolizes partially the work we do with kids, but they’re really giving us a gift back.” Grant said.

The mural will be located on the 5^th floor of Lindquist, on the northwest corner of the building. Painting will last from 8:45 a.m. to noon.