Founding of a City: Exploring Miami's Roots

(This article was first published in the Belen Alumni Magazine - Winter 2026 edition.)

Since 2016, 8th-grade students have been offered the opportunity to experience the Close Up Foundation program, Founding of a Nation (FOAN).  This program allows students to explore Philadelphia, PA, Williamsburg and Yorktown, VA, and Washington, D.C.’s numerous landmarks and museums, and enjoy countless activities that help them learn about the history and origins of the United States of America. However, not all 8th graders can make the trip.

 

This led to Mrs. Patricia Bustamante, beloved assistant principal of the middle school, and Mr. Patrick Collins, renowned U.S. Government teacher, banding together to create an innovative way to honor Miami’s rich history. To ensure all students receive a generous dose of culture, they poured countless hours and resources into creating a new, exciting program, one just as memorable and impactful as the Founding of a Nation experience: Founding of a City (FOAC).

 

From November 18–21, members of the class of 2030 participated in the first FOAC, enjoying an educational tour of Miami and studying its history and culture by visiting significant landmarks and gaining insight into the city they might have never otherwise. 

 

Students enjoyed discovering the foundations of the city, such as the Tequesta settlement, or the arrival of The Society of Jesus, examining the emigration and immigration patterns of the city, and immersing themselves in the culture of Miami’s founders by excavating, potting clay, or even exploring ancient natural sites and removing invasive plant-life. 

 

Aside from interactive activities and projects, students also visited a wide variety of culturally rich landmarks and impactful sites critical to understanding the timeline of our city. Notable locations included the Miami Circle, Brickell Ave Bridge, Bayfront Park, the Freedom Tower, HistoryMiami Museum, Gesu Catholic Church, and the Miccosukee Village in the Everglades. Whatever the adventure, whether it be foraging through Miami’s diverse nature or rediscovering forgotten history, the students enjoyed an entertaining, interactive, and enriching experience to help them learn more about the origins and founding myths of the city we live and love.

 

“The goal of the Founding of a City program is to show young men what every Miamian ought to know about our city and to inspire them to want to know more,” said Mr. Collins. “Fostering curiosity is not an easy task, but with a little help from Belen and FOAC, it is a sincere hope that our students become educated leaders of the Magic City of Miami.”

 

Before the creation of FOAC, students who didn’t attend FOAN participated in various field trips, including visits to the federal courthouse, a beach cleanup, and an exploration of the Frost Museum. While these activities were engaging and educational, they did not provide a strong historical and academic foundation that the Founding of a Nation program offered. 

 

“It was my desire that every 8th-grade student would have the opportunity to be immersed in a high-impact program that challenged them to grow in knowledge and civic responsibility,” said Mrs. Bustamante. “In our excitement to explore historical moments in distant cities, we overlooked the profound and vital lessons waiting right in our own backyard. Once we recognized that, we immediately got to work on designing this program. I am most grateful to Mr. Collins and Mrs. Maria D. Alonso, who were instrumental in making FOAC a reality.”

 

“FOAC was forged by the cliche, ‘Teamwork makes the dream work.’ Beginning with Mrs. Bustamante’s desire for a program to rival FOAN, a team of administrators and teachers came together to develop a first-rate program to launch at Belen,” said Mr. Collins. “It was exhilarating and fun to learn and share what we learned about Miami with the students.”

 

While our sunny, tropical city lacks the vast number of revolutionary-war-torn artifacts and grand monuments related to the birth of the United States, it is not without its fair share of history and culture. It too is dotted with significant landmarks, rich points of interest, and chronicled curios that paint the narrative of Miami in a way that can’t be recreated by an internet search bar.

 

“Founding Of A City is meant to mirror the central purpose of Founding Of A Nation:  After a standard approach of reading, listening, and learning about the history of Miami, FOAC then takes students to the actual sites of our city to experience a connection with each historic place,” said Mr. Collins. “For example, we learn about the attempted assassination of President-elect Franklin Roosevelt in Miami a few weeks before his inauguration in 1933. The student group then gathers at the very spot where anarchist Guisuppe Zangara pulled the trigger and almost changed the course of history.  Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak was hit in the burst of gunfire and soon after died.  A tribute to Mayor Cermak is on that spot in Bayfront Park. That is not just knowing history but feeling it.” 

 

“It really shed a new light on how I learn by not only showing me things that I couldn’t really have ever seen in the classroom, but also gave me valuable ‘insider’ information by being able to see and hear about these things up close compared to only hearing about them in class,” said Christian Díaz ‘30, who attended FOAC. “For example, the HistoryMiami museum was particularly amazing for me because it was an immersive experience, and I could actually see the history in front of me. As opposed to just seeing a slideshow in class, we were actually being informed by people with knowledge and experience on these cool topics.”

 

The idea of seeing these monuments and historical relics firsthand, rather than seeing images and hearing their stories in lectures, was what interested the school administration in both programs. Any student from any school could research this history and produce a lengthy essay on it. Still, the idea is to get the Wolverines to see these landmarks and monuments in person and to get as close as possible to the history of where we live. Belen’s involvement with the Founding of a Nation has allowed countless students to have such an experience, and now the Founding of a City can offer the same to the remaining students.  

 

“The FOAC program was designed to accomplish two main goals: helping our students appreciate the history of their city and understand the responsibility they have in taking care of it,” said Mrs. Bustamante. “We are committed to forming and educating the future leaders of Miami.”