A team of 5 DATA students had the opportunity to tour and interview individuals staying at the Coachella Valley Rescue Mission.
Coachella Valley Rescue Mission
Youth Town Hall
A small group of DATA students was privileged to be able to work at the Youth Town Hall Speaker Series.
Disaster Drill at Cathedral City High
Disaster drill at Cathedral City High School was a great success! A team of DATA students created a video highlighting the different strategies that the rescue teams would use in the case of a disaster.
DATA goes to CALARTS
DATA goes to CALARTS (California Institute for the Arts) in Valencia for a fieldtrip.
CTE Showcase
This year Palm Springs Unified School District hosted a CTE showcase and our students took first place with their integrated project that focused on creating awareness about addictions that affect teenagers. This year’s showcase was an outstanding highlight of all nine academies in the district. It is a great honor to be chosen and to represent our school with pride.
Short Fest
This year seems to be full of a lot of firsts. For the first time, DATA hosted Short Fest which is a film festival comprised of short films created by students in film school or professionals. This Festival creates an opportunity for students to be exposed to unique and dynamic films, as well as start a dialogue with the filmmakers after the films are shown. This event was truly an enriching, inspiring opportunity for our academy. We are looking forward to hosting this again next year.
SkillsUSA State Competition
This year at SkillsUSA state competition history was made. For the first time, DATA students took first place in Game Design and, they took second place in Digital Cinema. Altogether, DATA brought over 60 students and took home over a dozen medals. Now the students that won Gold are preparing for their national competition which will be held in Louisville, Kentucky. We wish them the best of luck and will keep you posted on their progress.
KMIR
On Friday, March 24th, students at DATA had the opportunity to go to KMIR Studios and had a wonderful time learning about the studio and job opportunities. The students were given the chance to have some airtime and they were pretty excited about that!
Accepted into California Institute of the Arts
Jennifer Reynoso just learned that she got accepted into California Institute of the Arts (Calarts) in the Film/video program. Jennifer was able to participate in Calarts summer program, CSSSA. Through her experience she realized that Calarts was the school for her. She later put together a portfolio and artist statement that were strong enough to get accepted. This school was her first choice and she is very excited to attend in September. Calarts is a small art community of about 1,400 students in Valencia, California. Calarts is known for its innovative approach to arts education in 6 disciplines: Art, Critical Studies, Dance, Film/Video, Music, and Theater.
Skills USA Regional competition (Region 6).
This past weekend, January 28th, DATA students had the opportunity to compete at the Skills USA Regional competition (Region 6). Over the past five years, Region 6 has doubled in competitors and now has over a thousand students competing in competitions. Even with this new growth, Cathedral City High School DATA students were able to bring home 24 medals. A total of 57 students will be moving on to the state competition. This does not include the upcoming Skills USA Leadership Conference.
A few highlights from our successful Skills USA competition
Jebari Wooten and Manuel Aramburo are Juniors in the DATA Academy and have participated in Skills USA and competed in Digital Cinema Production for the past two years. This year their film, “Metathisophobia,” took second place and they will be moving on to the state competition in April. Jose Aguirre and Marcos Correa, Seniors in the DATA Academy, also competed in the Digital Cinema Production contest and placed third for their film, “What’s Your Name?” They will be moving on to the state competition as well. Sedona Cruz and Alexandra Magnusson are Freshman in the DATA Academy and competed in the TV Video Production competition and they, too, will be moving on to the state competition
Below are two of the award-winning films
Palm Springs International Film Festival for Student Day
On January 9th we took 200 excited students to the Palm Springs International Film Festival for Student Day. We saw two amazing films, “The Eagle Huntress,” directed by Otto Bell and, “A Man Called Ove.” Students even got to meet the Director of “A Man Called Ove,” Hannes Holm, and ask him questions. Between the films, students were served a nice lunch. Students were extremely captivated and moved by both films. The energy enjoyed by the students at the film festival resounded for days.
