On Wednesday night, April 23rd, the halls of Verrado High School came alive with a powerful display of creativity, collaboration, and culture. The annual “One World, One Verrado” showcase drew families, students, and staff into a celebration of what makes our school community so unique—and this year, one project struck a chord that echoed through every classroom and corner of the campus.
The spotlight was on the cross-curricular Protest Music Project, an ambitious collaboration between the Choir, Band, AP Language & Composition, and English III classes. What started as classroom conversations about civil disobedience, historical movements, and rhetorical devices transformed into a multimedia experience that reminded everyone of the power of student voice.
Band teacher Tracy Meldrum stated: “I think doing a project such as a mock protest/sit-in is fantastic! What a great, RELEVANT project for the students to be working on! This project works on so many levels – through English, media, history, and music! Music truly brings people together. We can learn so much through music. Music is so often composed because words themselves cannot express all the emotion we feel at the time.”
Mrs. Summer’s AP Lang class and Mrs. Studts’ English III class both held an explosive protest that began outside in the courtyard. AP Lang largely focused on the Vietnam War. English III took different political songs from the 1960s and made connections today.
Student Lily Calderon explained, “ Mrs. Studts’ One World, One Verrado project focused on America’s counterculture era. This project taught me about life during the late ’60s and early ’70s and how it influenced civil rights and discrimination in the past and the present day. We made connections with modern politics and similar scandals happening then as well.”
“We recently did a project expressing our feelings about a certain protest we chose and attaching a song to it that explains the same feelings about what we are protesting for,” said Student Caden Sim. “I chose ‘Fortunate Son’ by Creedence Clearwater Revival, and this song talks about people protesting against government elitism.”
Ethan Hockenberry enjoyed the project, “Something I really enjoyed about the project was that I got to learn about history and how it’s affected our culture today. I love how we got to deep dive into the music of the hippies in the 1960s, and some of the songs I personally enjoy.”
The performance space at Verrado was transformed into an immersive exhibit, featuring live renditions of protest songs from the Vietnam era. Choir students brought goosebumps with a haunting version of Bob Dylan’s Blowin’ in the Wind, while the Band performed a powerful arrangement of The Beatles’ Come Together.
Teachers from each department echoed the same sentiment: when students are given a chance to express themselves across disciplines, the results are powerful. AP Lang students examined the social and historical context of the songs they studied and English III made connections to the present using protest songs, while the Choir and Band brought the emotion and urgency of those lyrics into the performance space.
“Music is more than just notes and rhythms—it’s a language of emotion. When we sing, we’re not just making sound; we’re delivering a message that people don’t just hear—they feel it, they connect with it. That’s the power of music. It speaks to the heart in ways words alone sometimes can’t,” explained Elyse Spiegel, Verrado’s Choir director.
Meldrum agreed, “Music truly brings people together. We can learn so much through music. Music is so often composed because words themselves cannot express all the emotion we feel at the time. Lyrics can only go so far, but the melodic and harmonic qualities of a piece of music can give a person a deeper sense of the true meaning of the lyrics.”
In a world that often feels divided, “One World, One Verrado” reminded us of something important: our voices matter. And when we use them together, we’re louder, stronger, and impossible to ignore.