![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/25_RA_StatueUnveil_061225-51-scaled-e1749757458827.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Middle and high school students at Renaissance Academy spent weeks diligently working on a dolphin sculpture to display in front of the school. They will unveil the artwork at 10:15 a.m. Thursday, June 12.<\/p>\n
Art teacher Nancy Habit said, \u201cI originally sought to bring a dolphin to our school as a peace-building project \u2014 an opportunity to unite our students in something beautiful and collaborative.\u201d<\/p>\n
Renaissance Academy students come from across the district.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want the students and the people of our community to see what I\u2019ve witnessed during my 30 years of teaching in alternative education: our students are capable, talented, bright and eager,\u201d Habit said. \u201cThey deserve chances to feel proud of themselves, to explore who they are, to learn how to support one another, and to recognize that Virginia Beach is their home, all of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Habit began by distributing dolphin templates and inviting students to submit their own designs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I reviewed them, I couldn’t choose just one \u2014 and I didn\u2019t want to leave anyone out,\u201d Habit said. \u201cSo, I divided the sculpture into sections using painter\u2019s tape and had students paint their designs in the spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n
Habit worked with art therapy intern Tara O’Brien to raise funds to purchase the sculpture through A Dolphin\u2019s Promise<\/a>, a program that helps Virginia Beach organizations erect sculptures around the city that support Operation Smile\u2019s efforts to provide surgery for people with cleft conditions worldwide. Several Virginia Beach schools have participated in the program.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile supporting Operation Smile wasn\u2019t my initial goal, it has been a meaningful and unexpected bonus to learn that our efforts are helping children in other countries,\u201d Habit said.<\/p>\n Habit said she\u2019s proud of the students\u2019 dedication and creativity.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve been absolutely phenomenal throughout this process,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Watch a video of the unveiling here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Middle and high school students at Renaissance Academy spent weeks diligently working on a dolphin sculpture to display in front of the school. They will unveil the artwork at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":14036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14003"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14045,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14003\/revisions\/14045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>Students who couldn\u2019t paint directly on the sculpture due to scheduling conflicts or testing were still included. With the help of peers and staff, their ideas were added to the final piece. Students who didn\u2019t work on the dolphin itself contributed by painting rocks with positive affirmations, which will surround the base of the sculpture.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"