SDSCPA Holds Meetings for Prospective Students

Do you know a student who is curious and passionate about the arts? At the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts (SDSCPA), the arts are a required and essential part of the learning experience in grades 6-12. Families of aspiring artists in dance, music, theatre, visual and media arts, and creative writing are invited to attend an informational meeting. Meetings will be held virtually on October 24 at 9am and November 17 at 6pm. The Zoom link will be available on the SDSCPA website at https://www.sdscpamainstage.com/, under the Admissions tab. Interested families should also complete the SDUSD Choice Application (available through November 16). Attend to find out more about the application and audition process for this award-winning arts magnet school.

Class of 2021 Resource Page

The SDUSD Counseling & Guidance team has a one-stop-shop Class of 2021 resource page. Check it out!

https://sites.google.com/sandi.net/2021resources/home Please contact: counselingandguidance@sandi.net for additional information.

EngineerGirl Ambassador Program Now Accepting Applications

An EngineerGirl Ambassador is a female, U.S. high school student who designs, develops, and implements a project in her local community that will encourage younger girls - particularly those with little access to engineering role models - to think about engineering and engineering careers and give them practical experience in engineering design.

Ambassadors will receive training and support from the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in collaboration with the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) through the EngineerGirl website. For more information visit: https://www.engineergirl.org/128602/Ambassadors

Waves of Music are in the Air!

What’s that you hear? Why, it’s the sweet sound of recorder melodies floating throughout the city of San Diego! The Visual and Performing Arts Department purchased thousands of recorders for Grade 4 & 5 students in the Full Grade Level and Introduction to Music programs, and they have been delivered to school sites. The recorders will be distributed to students throughout the month of October.

The elementary students will learn to read, write, create, and play music on the recorder during their online music classes, and the music teachers are excited to begin! So, if you see a young person walking down the street playing a recorder or hear a melody coming out of the room down the hall, enjoy the tune and smile, knowing that our students are creating and receiving music education in San Diego Unified. Let the music playing begin!

Pictured in photo - Jolene Ress, Admin Aide, Visual and Performing Arts Dept.

San Diego Adult School Graduation

The San Diego Adult School is very proud of all 168 students in our 2020 graduating class! Cassandra Gosek is one of our exceptional students and we are honored to have her represent our school and her fellow students in our virtual commencement ceremony.

Cassandra enrolled into the Mira Mesa High School Diploma program in 2019. She had not been enrolled in school for some time and was a little timid to return to the classroom, but also very determined to graduate. Cassandra has worked as a campus security guard at Twain Mesa High School on the Mira Mesa High Campus for many years. She has done an outstanding job working closely with the Twain students and young adults while encouraging them to pursue their education with passion while also being a model student herself. Cassandra completed her required lab hours and pursued extra tutoring from San Diego Adult School and Twain educators whenever possible. She learned to excel in being flexible, her work breaks were dedicated to studying, and she utilized every spare minute that she was given to finish tests and credits to complete her high school diploma. She had the unique experience of being a San Diego Unified School District Staff member and student at the same time. We are very proud of her accomplishments! The San Diego Adult School offers a High School Diploma program at Crawford HS, Garfield HS, Lincoln HS, Madison HS, Mira Mesa HS, and Morse HS. If you are between the ages of 18 and 19 years and 11 months and are interested in earning your high school diploma please click here.

Careeronestop- Scholarship Search

Search more than 8,000 scholarships, fellowships, grants, and other financial aid award opportunities. You can:

Look through the whole list of scholarships below, arranged in order of closest deadline Narrow your list with "Search by keyword." Enter a keyword about the type of award you're looking for Use the filters to see only awards for certain award types, locations, level of study, and more Visit: https://www.careeronestop.org/Toolkit/Training/find-scholarships.aspx *Don't forget to visit NAVIANCE STUDENT too for up-to-date local scholarships & more! https://id.naviance.com/- USE CLEVER to log in!

SDSU Office of Admissions Virtual Hours

SDSU is offering virtual front desk assistance on Monday-Friday from 11am-2pm! See this website for the Zoom link: http://bit.ly/SDSUFrontDesk

Northrop Grumman High School Involvement Partnership Program

Northrop Grumman solves the toughest problems in space, aeronautics, defense and cyberspace worldwide. Their 90,000 employees are Defining Possible every day using science, technology and engineering to create and deliver advanced systems, products and services. You may not know that Northrop Grumman is also a valued partner of San Diego Unified and they reach our students in multiple ways. During the 2019-2020 school year eight students from our district participated in the Northrop Grumman High School Involvement Partnership (HIP) Program. The experience is designed to support high school students to successfully complete college studies in engineering, physics, computer science, math, or cybersecurity. Students are selected as they enter their Junior year of high school. San Diego Unified is very proud of the following seven students who have been chosen to return for a second year of the program during their Senior year: San Diego High School SciTech: Anissa Chavarria, Hunter Hayes, and Aaron Hermosillo Hoover High School: Yosief Abraham, Antonio Esparza, Toan Le, and Rene Rodriguez. During the second year of the program the students will be assigned to a mentor at Northrop Grumman and be given an opportunity to solve a real world problem alongside a professional engineer.  

Congratulations to the students for earning these valuable experiences! We are very thankful to Northrop Grumman and their team for believing in our students and community to open up a world of possibilities in the future. 

Staff Spotlight: Andreanna Murphy- CCTE Head Counselor

Hello! My name is Andreanna Murphy and I am a Head Counselor with the CCTE department. I am excited to be working with your students this school year as they explore the many post-secondary options available to them. Did you know that many of our middle schools & high schools offer pathway themed courses that align with the most in-demand career sectors in our county? Did you know that your high school student can earn college credit from the San Diego Community College District while in high school? Please follow me on twitter at: @CcteMrs as I post weekly lots of student opportunities, ranging from scholarships, career searches, college virtual visits, student internship opportunities & more! You can also reach me at amurphy@sandi.net if you have questions or student opportunities you would like me to share with our SDUSD community.

CCTE Biotechnology Students at Mira Mesa High School Participate in Online Internship Interviews

The students in Lisa Yoneda's CCTE Biotechnology class at Mira Mesa H.S. will be moving their internship interviews online this year. All students in the biotechnology classes take part each year in an internship with ScienceBridge. As part of that process, the students interview with industry members for specific teams within the internship such as lab managers, customer service, solutions and aliquots, and quality assurance. Through this experience, each student gets a real interview experience while applying to be part of a year-long internship team or team manager. Although limited this year on what team activities each internship group will be able to do, typically they then run a non-profit laboratory kit business. This year students will still participate in some of these internship activities starting with interviews with biotechnology industry members through zoom

VAPA Holds Visual Art Supply Drive

In order to ensure students’ access to visual art across the district during distance learning, the VAPA Department and the VAPA Foundation have partnered to co-host an art supply drive to benefit students of SDUSD. Teachers across the district are invited to submit a request for art supplies (materials will be distributed equitably based on need and available resources).

An in-person drop-off of visual art supplies was held at Madison High School on Saturday, October 3. Supporters may still donate to the VAPA Foundation at https://vapafoundation.org/ or purchase requested items from the Amazon Wish List at https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/2VC5UXTNDNYKU

Food Kits for Culinary!

In a pilot to be replicated at all the schools with culinary programs, Hoover's Chef Tina Luu began distributing food kits for culinary students to experience food labs at home. CCTE provided the food items and Chef Luu prepared the items for distribution. Following COVID-19 guidelines, the food kits weredistributed to students. The food provided is aligned with the curriculum of the Culinary Arts and Management course. Chef Luu is already providing the video content for students to create their own dishes.

With the pilot's success, CCTE and the culinary teachers will be providing students essential kitchen tools as well as the food kits to make sure the online experience students have is as hands on as possible. We are working with SDUSD's Food Services to make the distribution as smooth as possible. Congrats to Chef Luu!

Change Your Community, Change the World - Climate Action Competition

During the summer, San Diego Unified partnered with the National Summer Learning Association (NSLA) to encourage students to identify ways they are changing their local community’s response to climate change. We asked students to share their ideas to prevent the changing rain patters, forest fires, rising seas, and other consequences of the changing climate.

Participation in this competition gave students from all grade levels an opportunity to have their voices heard and to empower others to make change. The winners of the competition earned $500 gift cards from NSLA and received letters of recognition from Representative Scott Peters. The TK-5 winners were from Girl Scout Troop 4343 representing Tierrasanta Elementary. The eight students joined together to produce the video "No Matter our Size, We Can Still Combat Climate Change." We are very proud of Blair B., Grace M., Ava B., Emilia M., Julia M., Emma P., Grace B., Eva B., and Madison B. Olivia Murphy from de Portola Middle School won the Middle School Competition with her video, "Keep Our Beaches Clean". She demonstrated what one individual can do to limit the impacts of climate change and influence others to take action. Daphnie Tseng won the High School Competition with the video, "Our Earth," promoting recycling and sustainable practices. Tatum Buffington’s video: "You Can Be the Change," was the runner up for grades 9-12. Daphnie and Tatum are students from La Jolla High School. San Diego Unified is very proud to have a community of "Changemakers!"