If you walk into the lobby of St. Paul’s Central High School, you might notice a face staring back at you. That’s because Central has a new student-designed mascot and its name is Francis.

“It could really represent anybody,” the Creative Collective students behind the latest version of the mascot say.

The Central Creative Collective is a student-led group that “uses art and culture to enhance physical and social environments,” according to the collective. Under the mentorship of local artist Leon Wang, students have worked together on various projects, including a reinterpretation of the school’s mascot, the Minuteman.

“We all thought that if we polished it up, it could represent Central’s spirit and the student spirit,” one student said.

The reinterpretation, Francis, first appeared on T-shirts for the Central Business Opportunity Fair. The mascot has since been featured on posters and stickers and made an appearance during the 2025 graduation ceremony. A graffiti mural of Francis was installed by students in the school’s lobby on May 19.

The Pioneer Press spoke to several members of the collective for this report. They asked not to be named for privacy purposes.

Why the reinterpretation?

Minutemen were militia members prepared and trained to fight on a minute’s notice during the American Revolutionary War. Among them were a number of Black soldiers.

The original designs of the Central Minuteman, named Marshall, appeared as a white man carrying a musket. Later, he carried a school flag and, eventually, the same design was colored brown and adopted as another Minuteman named Malcolm.

“We were looking at Central’s past mascots, and all of them kind of felt out of touch with today’s students,” a student said.

Malcolm, displayed on the Central website, provided cultural representation for the school’s racially diverse community, but it didn’t encapsulate the entire body of students, the collective expressed, and it also fit within a male-gendered binary.

“It (Malcolm) didn’t really feel like it connected with Central students, and so we wanted to make a mascot that anyone at Central could see themselves as,” a student said.

Creating Francis

During the spring semester, each student sketched mascot designs and presented them to one another. One student’s design in particular stood out to the collective.

“I think the reason we chose Francis is, one, because the drawing was so cool,” a student said. “You couldn’t really tell what gender the person was or the race of the character, either, and so anyone who looked at this could probably see themselves in it because of how neutral it was.”

The name Francis was chosen because it felt in theme with the war period and is gender neutral, the students said.

Sunny Kase, co-chair of the Central parent advisory council, said the students worked every Sunday during the semester as well as after-school hours on their design.

“They worked really, really hard, and they wanted something that they would be proud of,” Kase said.

A student-led artist collective

New graduates, standing in front of a Central High School Minuteman banner, move their tassels from right to left after receiving their diplomas during commencement ceremony for the Class of 2025 of St. Paul’s Central High School Roy at Wilkins Auditorium Center in St. Paul on Wednesday, June 3, 2025. (Craig Lassig / Special to the Pioneer Press)

The collective is a part of the Creativity Center for Learning & Leadership, founded by Wang, in partnership with the school and parent advisory council. As a part of the collective, students organize projects and events, have begun work on a comprehensive Campus Creative Placemaking Plan, and more, according to the collective.

“We believe in cultivating the student voice; alongside that, we also believe in cultivating a process to create tangible impact in in our communities,” Wang said.

The long-term goal of the collective is to support Central’s student clubs and organizations on designing visual systems to represent their identities and aspirations, Wang said.

Over the next school year, the collective plans to work alongside the Central Black Student Union and other student leaders to facilitate a memorial project to honor Philando Castile.

“He was a heavy part of Central’s community, and yet we don’t feel like he’s represented enough here in the building,” a student said. “We want to make sure it’s visible that he was and still is a very important part of Central’s history and community.”

July 6, 2026, will mark 10 years since Castile was killed. Castile, who worked in the St. Paul school district, deserves his memory to be carried out, the students said. When the collective first discussed the memorial project, they consulted Castile’s mother, Valerie, they said.

“We invited her to come in one day after school, and we talked about some plans and about who Philando was and how he impacted people in the neighborhood,” a student said.

Proud to be a Central student

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Central uses multiple iterations of the Minuteman for promotional events and branding, Principal Cherise Ayers said, including Marshall, Malcolm and now Francis. There is no one official Central Minuteman, but multiple that will be used interchangeably, she said.

“With the students creating this one, it was very powerful that, again, everyone could see themselves in this mascot,” Ayers said.

When designing Francis, Wang asked the students to strive to create something of high quality, the students said.

“It makes me really proud to be making this kind of stuff in my school, and it just feels like I’m doing something that has a positive impact on our community,” a student said. “It’s made me proud of who I am and proud to be at Central.”