The Architecture for Communities of Los Angeles (ACLA) is hosting Paul Revere Williams Day at the Los Angeles Trade-Tech College on Saturday, April 2nd from 9 am to 5 pm.
The Paul Revere Williams Day celebrates inclusivity in design-related professions by providing a wide range of activities and modes of engagement between students, educators, and professionals to share information, resources, and excitement for design!
This free event is open to the public– RSVP today to make connections, try great food, and have fun learning more about design professions!
Activities will include:
Mentoring Sessions: Speak with college students, professionals, and teachers about pursuing a career in architecture, engineering, and construction-related fields.
Mock interviews: Sign up to practice your interview skills!
Portfolio Reviews: Present your work to professionals/teachers to get feedback!
Site Tours: Visit open houses at schools/companies, or construction site tours of buildings!
RIOS Design Firm is hosting a job shadow day on Friday, April 15th from 1 to 4 pm at their office in Downtown Los Angeles. Four lucky students will be able to meet the RIOS staff and spend time at their company.
To apply, you must respond to the following questions by Friday, April 1st at 4 pm. You can send your responses to Crissel Rodriguez at crodriguez@davincischools.org.
Which profession, offered at RIOS, are you most interested in? Please see this list and pick at least two.
What interests you most about these professions?
What grade level are you currently in, and have you taken any courses related to this career?
RIOS is also offering internships this summer! To view these internship opportunities, please click here.
The Knowledge House is seeking high school youth interested in learning code and design skills! The Karim Kharbouch Coding Fellowship (KKCF) is cofounded by Hip Hop Artist French Montana and supports youth interested in STEM. The fellowship is a 12-month program, starting with paid, virtual summer training, followed by monthly career & college access workshops and coaching. Graduates are matched to summer internships and college STEM programs. You must be 16 years old to apply.
The Knowledge House is also seeking candidates for the 2021 Innovation Fellowship, a 12-month program starting in the fall to promote technology-based opportunities in web development, data science, cyber security, and usability design. To be eligible you must earn less than $50,000 a year and possess a high school diploma.
If you are interested in either of these opportunities, you can attend our information session on Tuesday, April 5 at 6:00 pm. To register, please email Crissel Rodriguez at crodriguez@davincischools.org
In two weeks, we’re excited to be bringing back our Exhibition Night tradition! DVD Exhibition night is from 5:30pm-7:00pm on Wednesday 4/6 for grades 11 & 12, and Thursday 4/7 for grades 9 & 10. We look forward to welcoming you to campus and giving you an opportunity to see what our students have been doing and learning this year! See the bell schedule for the next two weeks, leading up to Exhibition, here:
This semester, our Exhibition Nights will be “open-house” style, and masks will be required of all participants as these are large indoor events with students, families, staff and community stakeholders present. Please see this email for the comprehensive update on masking.
Finally, we are thrilled to be able to bring back the spirit of the “Overnighter” tradition this year with “Camp Retreats” for our 9th and 10th grade students! These will be full-day (but not overnight) retreats at Camp Pondo, with students leaving the Da Vinci campus at 9am and returning at 9pm. The DVD Camp Retreat days are:
Friday, April 22nd for 10th graders
Wednesday, May 19th for 9th graders
The retreats will include a wide variety events including team-building, meaningful dialogue, and recreational activities including a zipline, skate park, climbing wall, and more! Details of the retreats will be coming soon, but for now you can mark the dates in your calendar if you have a 9th or 10th grade student!
Key Dates & Upcoming Events
DVD Exhibition Nights:
Wednesday, April 6th (for Grades 11 & 12)
Thursday, April 7th (for Grades 9 & 10)
Friday, April 8th: NO CLASSES (Staff Development)
Monday, April 11th – Friday, April 15th: NO CLASSES (Spring Break)
The first 50 young ladies will receive four tickets to LA Galaxy’s match against Nashville SC at Dignity Health Sports Park on Saturday, April 23rd.
This event will give young ladies the opportunity to look through hundreds of donated selections to find their perfect prom dress for free regardless of their socioeconomic status.
Volunteers will assist those in attendance with finding the perfect fit for their personality, frame and style. Once they select their free dress, they each will have the opportunity to do a photoshoot in a mirrored photo booth.
All students in attendance that are claiming a dress must have their student ID and sign a photo release waiver at check-in. Please RSVP if you plan on attending.
You are cordially invited to the Da Vinci Schools’ first CARnival! We invite you to a day of fun, games, food, and CARS!
This unique show will feature cars from the Automobile Museum, the Corvette of Choice Club, Army Armored Vehicles, and more. We will also have dunk tanks, carnival games, and many local food trucks. It will be an event you won’t want to miss!
The funds raised at the event will be used to support our senior class across all Da Vinci Schools (Science, Communications, Design, Connect, and RISE) and support our prom, Grad Nite, and graduation. Since many of our school activities were placed on hold during the pandemic, we would like for this event to be a way to bring our community together and celebrate our graduating class of 2022!
Happy Friday! This week was full of college and career excitement thanks to the “March Madness” activities hosted by our counselors, Pam and Klarissa! Students connected with alumni, competed for fun prizes, and had time to think about their future goals. For more info, click here to see yesterday’s blog post.
Exhibition Returns to Da Vinci!
Da Vinci Schools is very excited to announce the return of Exhibition! In three weeks, DVD Exhibition Night returns:
Wednesday 4/6 for Grades 11 & 12, 5:30pm-7:00pm
Thursday 4/7 for Grades 9 & 10, 5:30pm-7:00pm
Don’t forget to check out the DVD Calendar for other upcoming events!
Week 28 Preview
Key Dates & Upcoming Events
DVD Exhibition Nights:
Wednesday, April 6th (for Grades 11 & 12)
Thursday, April 7th (for Grades 9 & 10)
Friday, April 8th: NO CLASSES (Staff Development)
Monday, April 11th – Friday, April 15th: NO CLASSES (Spring Break)
This week we celebrated March Madness College and Career. On Monday all students participated in 3 rounds of College Kahoot, One Hand Cup Stacking and Trasketball. Alumni Sydney Richardson c/o 2021, David Lopez c/o 2018, Alfonso Gonzalez c/o 2018, DeMondre Biddle c/o 2019, Sevilla Hawthorne c/o 2020, Rachel Mitsch c/o 2015, Ariana Castenada c/o 2016, Cora Cuevas c/o 2016, Leah Gilner c/o 2018, Arcie Galvan c/o 2018 and Danitza Aguilar c/o 2018 helped to crown our 4 Swag Bags. The winners were Noah Gilner, Natalia Torres, Amanda Walker and Nayeli Ortiz. On Tuesday our alumni returned to participate in a college and career share out with industry professionals during advisory classes. Thank you to the following industry professionals for taking the time to share valuable information with our students: Luis Renteria – LA County Dept of Public Health; Amber Baker – Kaiser Permanente; Anjuli Koentopp – Grades of Green; Sam Blake – Grades of Green; Bryant Lin – NinetyeightLA; Heidi Marks – Social Worker; Susana Franco-Rogan – City Planner; and Professor Rosalynde Loo – Loyola Marymount University. Our alumni also voted on the best decorated advisory college doors — the winners were 10th grade advisory with Ms. Wood (Spanish 2), 12th grade advisory with Mr. Taylor (College and Career Readiness), 11th grade advisory with Ms. Cari (Art & Design) and 9th grade advisory with Mr. Placencia (Biology). Fun pictures below!
DVD is happy to announce that we are offering free, in-person tutoring after school starting this week! Tutoring will be offered on the 4th floor, Mon-Thurs, from 4pm-5pm.
Tutoring is being provided by an experienced tutoring team from Gravity Assist. Students can come after school for help with math skills, test taking, writing help, general homework help, and more! All students are welcome via appointment or drop in.
Not only did they just win the Chairman’s Award at the Orange County Regional over the weekend which qualified them for the FIRST® Robotics World Championship next month in Houston, but they also are one of four teams featured in “More Than Robots,” a new original documentary that follows four teams from around the world as they prepare for the 2020 FIRST® Robotics Competition. Presented by Supper Club and Disney+ and made in partnership with FIRST®, “More Than Robots” is premiering today at the world-renowned SXSW (South by Southwest) Film Festival and will stream exclusively on Disney+ beginning March 18.
Check out Da Vinci’s 2020 Robotics Team up close in this exciting and inspiring documentary about taking their unique robot design “Jango” all the way to the highly competitive global championships. The film features three additional teams from Los Angeles, Mexico City, and Chiba, Japan. Although they are faced with overcoming challenges along the way, such as having limited resources or putting everything on hold because of a worldwide pandemic, the teams persevere and learn that there is a lot more to the competition than just robots. In 2020, Da Vinci’s Robotics Team took First Place at the L.A. Regional and went undefeated, 17-0, just days before our campuses closed due to COVID-19.
Team 4201: You are true STEM leaders and innovators! We are deeply grateful to all our students, mentors, sponsors, families and staff who support our award-winning robotics program!!
L.A. Regional FIRST Robotics Competition (March 31-April 3, 2022): We invite you to cheer on Da Vinci’s 2022 Robotics Team later this month. Da Vinci is hosting the L.A. Regional FIRST Robotics Competition at our Douglas campus, located at 201 N. Douglas Street in El Segundo. The event will be closed to spectators due to COVID, but you can stream it at The Blue Alliance. Go Team!
FIRST® continues to bring hands-on learning opportunities and mentorship to young people around the world, empowering them to not only think big, but to develop the science, engineering and technology skills needed to be the next generation of innovators.
