By Theresa O’Connor

What’s an eight-foot fungus doing in Mrs. Hunt’s room? A painted one, of course! From the Chandler Prep graduating class of 2016 and now a Flinn scholar at the ASU Barrett Honors College, Tina Peng spent a week of her summer painting a lovely mural for everyone to enjoy in the life science room.

While teaching at Chandler Prep, Ms. Hunt saw Tina painting a mural in their music room. She asked her if she could paint a mural in her biology room. According to Mrs. Hunt, Tina graciously said yes.

Later, when Ms. Hunt came to Tempe Prep, she wanted her to paint another mural in her new life science room. “I really wanted my new classroom to have something she created in it. I knew it would make such a difference in my year,” Mrs. Hunt said.

Again, Tina simply said yes. She spent 6 to 8 hours a week painting. Tina actually got the images of the volvot, fungi and microscope from the life science textbook Ms. Hunt uses today. Surprisingly, Tina free-handed everything with acrylic paint except the microscope, which she used a projector to copy the edges and straight lines. “I wanted to reflect the nature of the life science curriculum, incorporating basic elements from the course,” she said.

During Tina’s childhood, she would always draw, so her parents sent her to a teacher. From then on, art has been her passion. Now she majors in mathematics, computer science, video game development, and minors in studio arts. In her free time, she enjoys reading and dancing ballet, hip hop, modern, and swing. Tina plans to go to dance school in the future when she gets out of college.

If you haven’t seen the beautiful mural, you should definitely go check it out!