Mural Club
The walls of Princeton High School weren’t always as colorful as they are today. Thanks to countless students across different generations, the white and gray color scheme of the inside of PHS has slowly been filling up with creative art projects that represent the school community and showcase the talents of our students. Recently, Mural Club has been bringing life to the hallways all across the school.
The Mural Club follows a system of planning and execution that allows them to finish a full mural within a single school year. With multiple artists focusing on each part of the process, the group can piece together different ideas until a completed design is agreed upon and put onto the walls of PHS.
“The club leaders usually have an initial idea as to where they could have a mural, ... and then from there, we just kind of brainstorm ideas together,” said Milla Petrecca ’28, a member of Mural Club. “Once we have a design, we meet up, and then we project it onto the wall, and we do tracings first, and then we just kind of go back and forth, referencing our photo, and the traces that we have when we fill it in [with paint].”
Mural Club members meet often during each stage, collaborating to create a design, and then working together to paint it in sections as the year comes to an end. The club serves as a welcoming space for students to express their artistic talents and relax at the end of long school days.
“Everybody was so helpful and nice. There wasn’t any conflict, everybody kind of went with the flow, but they still offered their ideas.” said Petrecca. “I think it was just a good space to get your artistic kind of side out. ... We just kind of talked it through, and it just flowed really well.”
A lot of time is put into creating a mural, but in the end the members and the students of PHS alike get to enjoy the finished product created by the club.
“My favorite part [is] meeting up every paint session and just seeing it slowly come to life from the rough sketch to the final full thing. It was pretty great to see what we had [drawn] on this iPad be projected onto an actual wall in the school,” said Petrecca.
During the 2025—2026 school year, the Mural Club painted a language-themed design above the lockers in the 260s hallway. As spring rolled around, members of the club could be seen painting during Flex Time and after school every few days, slowly filling in the artwork until it was completed. When the piece was finished, those who worked on it got to sign their names on the wall next to the final mural.
“It felt great. I mean, I felt so part of the community. ... I felt so involved and happy to see our masterpiece and to get to sign my name and be part of it,” said member Elliana Levitskiy ’29.
As the club leaders begin to prepare and brainstorm for this upcoming year, they have a few hallways in mind. One hallway that the club members mentioned was the Twilight Zone, or the 200s hallway.
“I just have some ideas and I’m really excited to ... plan those and actually get them onto the school [walls] and leave my mark in a cool way,” said Petrecca.
The Bibimbops
Established in 2018, the Bibimbops are a K-pop cover dance group. This club is a sub-group of PHS’s Korean Club, a club that is known to co-host the PHS Asian Fest. Once named the Korean Cover Group, the Bibimbops recently rebranded their name, choosing to be called the Bibimbops instead.
Meetings for the Bibimbops are a mix of practicing skills and group bonding. The members often meet in the dance studio during break or Flex Time, and spend time talking while eating their lunches. After that, they dive into the specifics of the dance they are focusing on that day. Sometimes the group will isolate specific sections that they find troubling, and other days they will do complete run-throughs of everything they have worked on.
“I think my favorite part [of the club] is dancing, and also just getting to know a lot of people that have the same interests as me, and just forming a tight-knit group of friends. ... This club is really nice,” said leader Jeemin Kim ’29.
The group performs at a few different venues, such as PHS’s Asian Fest, Princeton Public Library, Day of Dialogue, and PHS Got Talent. Last year, at the school-wide talent show, the Bibimbops received the “Student’s Choice” award.
“Asian Fest is near March, and we start late September to October. It takes us maybe about a month or two to ... know the basics of the dance, ... and then we spend those other months really articulating how to solidify our dances and focus on certain details,” said Kim.
Learning every dance is different, but the Bibimbops have a few strategies they’ve found to help learn and practice a dance. The members make use of online recordings of the original groups practicing or performing to help figure out the correct moves and steps. They also focus on breaking the dance down based on body parts, focusing solely on the arm movements or leg movements, and then combining them to ensure a clean and synchronized dance.
“Sometimes we follow a tutorial, but other times, we just look at the group’s dance practice, but we use a mirror version, and then we just slow it down and then learn it step by step, and then we practice it and get it faster,” said member Hanlin Ren ’29.
In many dances, specific moves are delegated to specific people within the original group that is performing. Because of this, the Bibimbops have to assign specific “roles” to their members for certain dances so that the parts can work smoothly together.
“We usually go by who wants to be who. ... If you have a bias, a person that you really like in the group, then you can probably do that,” said Ren, “And usually the people who are older get to pick who they want, but it’s usually just pretty random.”
The group is excited to meet all of their new members and start their pieces for this year. With the club leaders already picked out, the Bibimbops are prepared for the 2026—2027 school year’s dance covers and events to come.