Freeman Family,

Last month, we shared our community decision to retire our school’s “Rebel” nickname and to begin our search for a nickname and mascot that better suit our core values as a school and community. We planned to begin the process of finding a new symbol for our school once our students returned to learning so we could be sure to get as much input from current and future students as possible. Today, we are announcing the first step in that process and asking for your input in this community decision.

We are thrilled to announce a partnership with the VCU Brandcenter, a national leader in marketing and brand management. The Brandcenter has assembled a team of industry experts who also happen to be Freeman and Brandcenter alumni. They, along with current VCU faculty and graduate students, will work with the DSF community to identify the qualities we want in our new symbols and nickname. They’ll help us address some key questions: What do we stand for, and how can we best represent that?

The first step in that process is hearing from you.

We are asking the entire Freeman community to take a few minutes over the next two weeks to complete this short series of questions (it’s a 6-question form) about who we are as a Freeman Family. The survey asks for your views about who we are as a community and what we care most about in a new mascot/nickname, and also asks for nickname suggestions. Along with those suggestions, please include your thoughts about why a particular symbol is a good fit for our school.

Freeman Mascot/Nickname Survey (1)

Thank you for being a part of this exciting process. We plan to announce our new name to students and the community in mid- to late October.