2014 In Review

Here's a look back at DATA Digital Imaging's proud moments of 2014 . . . 

• 1 of 6 highlighted Apple Distinguished Programs 
• California Partnership Lighthouse Academy status continued
• Dia de Los Muertos Celebration - 2nd Place Photography
• Coachella Valley Economic Partnership - October Student of the Month
• ConnectEd Studios - 1st and 3rd Place
• Cathedral City High School - Salutatorian and Golden Lion
• California Student Media Festival - Honorable Mention, Fine Arts
• San Bernardino Valley College Student Film Festival - Best Producer, High School
• So Cal Student Film Festival - Best Experimental film
• South Bay Student Video Festival - Excellence in Editing
• DigiCom Student Film Festival - $14k in student achievement awards
• SkillsUSA California - 3 Gold, 1 Silver, and 6 Bronze state medals
• Palm Springs Art Museum's Fine Arts Creativity Awards - U.S. Bank for Creativity Award
• Palm Springs Art Museum - Georgia Fogelson Scholarship
• Palm Springs Art Museum - Two Museum Associates Council awards
• DonorsChoose.org - Makerbot for Creativity 3d printer donation
• California Streaming photography contest- 3 Honorable Mentions
• Desert Advertising Federation - 1st Place, Texting while Driving campaign 
• Scholastic Art & Writing Awards - 1 Silver key, Two Honorable Mentions for photography
• SkillsUSA Region 6 - 8 Gold, 7 Silver, and 3 Bronze medals
• Unicorns & Trashcans iBook shared globally through Apple Education
• Graphic Designs: CCHS scoreboards, Ramon Academy leadership tees, DATA gear & print media, CCHS theater poster & program, Desert Theater League logo, Speedwalker t-shirt design, and California Partnership Academies brochure & logo redesign 
• Event Photography: PSUSD Champions of Excellence, Craftchella, Digicom Film Festival, El Paseo Fashion Week, Indian Wells Arts Festival, Palm Springs Modernism, Mary Pickford Oscars Night, and the Palm Springs Zombie Walk
• Collaborations: Year 5 of the Student Creative global arts collaborations and Year 4 of the Rio Vista Collaborations. 
• Publications: Press Enterprise 1000 Words, Scholastic Arts Storytelling with Friends, and Thrive! magazine Inside the Career Acadamies  

- Surf the details HERE -
MMXV already looks amazing!

1000 Words in Life

On Monday Nov. 24, three DI students were featured in the Life section of the Press Enterprise.
The article, titled 1000 Words, showcased the photography work of seniors Monico Casteneda and Cruz Moreno, as well as junior Mariafernanda Salazar.

View the online portion here

Winter Workshops

During the month of December, DATA Digital Imaging hosted three excellent workshops, bringing the expertise of professionals into the studio classroom.

Dec. 3 & 4- Off Camera Lighting Product Shoot with photographers Chris Miller and Greg Peterson provided photography students with a hands-on approach to portable strobe and urban fashion. 

Dec. 4- Storyboarding for Animation with Frank Gutler offered a rare opportunity for animation students to work with the creator of AFI's infamous Door Scene and go deeper into storyboarding techniques.

A huge thanks to DigiCom for making this happen!

Dec. 15th- Game Design Creative Feedback with Joel Fashingbauer assisted four DATA game design teams as they prepare professional pitches for the 2015 SkillsUSA season.

Dec. 30th- Crime Scene investigation with Cathedral City Police CSO Glen Warnica aligned photography skills with documenting a crime scene for CSI SkillsUSA preparation. 

Demo Day 12.14

On Dec. 12th, the Digital Arts Technology Academy at Cathedral City High School was honored to host 28 educators from 14 southern California school districts as part of it's California Partnership Lighthouse Academy and Apple Distinguished Program status. Also in attendance for this day-long event were friends from Apple Education and The California Arts Project.

DATA shared a variety of program experiences, Academy structures, and provided lunch. But, the real voice of it's "creative culture" came from student presentations in the following areas

CCNews, Behind the Blue & CVEP

Donielle Gerrell

Looping Student2Student Mentoring

Kenia Meza, Miguel Platero & Hillary Rivera

Creative Tools from Middle to High School

Jebari Wooten & Manny Aramburo

Game Design

Sebastian Gonzalez, Juan Martinez, Luis Galindo & Celeste Medina

The Rio Vista Collaborations

Norma Vazquez & Ariana Davis

Junior Mentoring

Jason Bullen

From Mentoring to Internships

David Vo & Samuel Oropeza

RV Collab in SchoolArts Magazine

A short article on the Rio Vista Collaborations, an ongoing project between DATA DI and 3rd graders at Rio Vista Elementary School, was featured in the January 2014 issue of School Arts magazine.

SchoolArts is a national art education magazine committed to promoting excellence, advocacy, and professional support for educators in the visual arts for over 100 years and reaches 30,000 readers online and in print. 

Read the issue HERE!

Geared Up for Skills

Have we grown? Yes! Five years ago the DATA program launched it's first SkillsUSA season with only 24 students. For 2015, we now have 142 members to include four educators and 138 students (121 from CCHS and 17 from Nellie Coffman Middle School). With more then 28 different skill and leadership contests and 5 different grade levels, it is very safe to say that our hands are full as we gear up for regional and state events!

LEADERSHIP

T-shirt Design

Pin Design

20 Second Elevator

Creed

Job Interview

Extemporaneous Speaking

Prepared Speech

Quiz Bowl

Occupational Health

Job Demonstrations

Action Skills

Chapter Display

Promotional Bulletinboard

SKILL

Digital Cinema

TV Video Production

Audio/Radio Production

Broadcast News Production

3D Visualization

Graphic Imaging Sublimation

Interactive App/Game Design

Photography

Screen Printing Technology

Advertising Design

Graphic Communications

Career Pathway Showcase- AME

Web Design

Crime Scene Investigation

Mobile Robotics

Good luck to all 138 students!

Creative Fall Designs

Fall 2014 lent it self to another great set of creative DI designs!

T-shirt designs for Ramon Academy student leadership

Scoreboard graphics for CCHS football, basketball, and baseball

DATA Gear: Hats, beanies, hoodies, polos, stickers, buttons, and magnets

CCHS Theater poster and program designs for the fall performance of Noises Off!

and DATA MMXV print media: banners, posters, and teacher business cards!

Champions of Excellence

On November 3rd, The Foundation recognized a wide-range PSUSD's supporters of academy and career technical education. Not only were SkillsUSA officers present to speak about the DATA program, but DI students shot the event, and our very own Dianne Funk of the Indian Wells Art Festival was there to be honored for her amazing contributions to DATA over these years.

Día Dead 2014

Congratulations to DI Senior Jazmine Valles for her photograph earning 2nd Place at the 2014 Día de Los Muertos celebration at Desert Memorial Park!

The free community event on Nov. 1st showcased PSUSD high school and middle school artists, folkloric dancers, a community altar, music, food and family fun. Sponsored by The Well in the Desert and the Palm Springs Cemetery District.

CVEP Honors DATA VP

Congratulations to DATA-SkillsUSA Vice President, David Vo, for being honored by the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership Board of Directors as Student of the Month! David spoke for several minutes during the October board meeting to Valley mayors, school board members, and business executives about his experiences in the DATA program and as a SkillsUSA member.

The MMXV DI Studio

Over the years, DATA Digital Imaging has shared what the studio/classroom looks like before and after school begins. Here's another peek using the 360Panorama app as we wrap Week 1 and head into 2015

Before...

... and after

from 2012

from 2011

Welcome to MMXV!

Welcome to the MMXIV - MMXV school year!

Please view the 2014-15 DATA Digital Imaging syllabus here

The entire document is reviewed with students the first day of school. As a means of saving paper, only the first and last 2 pages are sent home for households to read, sign, and return. 

If needed, a print copy maybe be requested.

See you at Back to School Night on Sept. 17th

Distinguishing Apple Programs

In 2012, DATA Digital Imaging was recognized as an Apple Distinguished Program. Now approaching 2015, we are very excited to share that the DATA program at Cathedral City High School is one of 6 schools listed on the all new Apple Education Distinguished Schools page for it's unique emphasis on CTE visual arts.

Give it a peek here

and connect to our growing collection of digital books

#DATAcademy

ConnectEd California Arts

Last spring, ConnectEd Studios put out a call for the best student projects to be submitted to the ConnectEd Studios Student Gallery.  After reviewing work from 10 career pathways, a panel of judges that included Linked Learning and industry professionals selected three winners. It is a pleasure to share that two of the three works were 2014 DATA graduating seniors. 

Congratulations to... 

1st Place- Austyn Moreno
Land Rings, Digital Photograph

3rd Place- Jarelle Balanzat
Adolescence, Film poster design

Learn more about the winners here!

DATA Thrives in the Coachella Valley

The Digital Arts Technology Academy is proud to share that two 2014 graduates were highlighted as the cover article in the summer issue of Thrive! magazine- focusing on career academies in the Coachella Valley. The article Jacob and Anthony's Excellent Digital Adventure, shares the story of the grads while emphasizing all the salient points that make the DATA program top notch.

In case you missed the print copy that went home in the Sunday edition of the Desert Sun, you can view the digital version right here!

2014 Skills Nationals

From June 23rd to the 28th, four DATA students and DI teacher/SkillsUSA advisor Matt Cauthron attended the 50th SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference in Kansas City, MO with more then 6,000 other members from across the U.S. (including Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Alaska).

Although they did not get on the winners podium this year, everyone learned a great deal, put forth their best effort, and are looking forward to being leaders and preparing for the 2014-15 season! Here is how they ranked amongst the rest of the United States

Audio / Radio Production

11th out of 18 Teams

Screen Printing Technology

15th out of 20 Individuals

Graphic Communications

20th out of 22 Individuals

The 50th anniversary strikes the end of the NLSC being held in downtown Kansas City.  The next 5 will be take place Louisville, Kentucky and should provide for an all new experience. 

Check out the photos here!

2014 DATA Grads

Congratulations to the 8th class of DATA graduates!

This class of 62 seniors was the largest group in the history of the program, boasted the largest number of students accepted to four-year schools, and earned over $72,000 in scholarships and awards. 

Desert Theater League Design

Congratulations to sophomore Jadin Wash for his design being selected as the new logo for the Desert Theater League! His work was chosen from among 20 submissions created during the 2nd semester Media Literacy class and will be used online and in-print for the Coachella Valley non-profit.

Sara Lopez Street Honored

Congratulations to DATA-SkillsUSA senior, CCHS Salutatorian and Golden Lion, Sara Lopez for having a street named in her honor at the corner of Date Palm and Dave Kelly Road!

Watch the video on KESQ.com here

So Cal Film Fests

Congrats to the following DATA DI artistos for making the grade outside the classroom at several California student media festivals this Spring...

California Student Media Festival

Honorable Mention, Fine Arts
Jonathan Serna

Give Me a Second

San Bernardino Valley College Student Film Festival

Best Producer: High School

Melissa Medina

On My Way

So Cal Student Film Festival

Experimental

Jonathan Serna

Give Me a Second

South Bay Student Video Festival

Excellence in Editing

Jonathan Serna

Give Me a Second

AND for the 1st time, DATA films will show during the Palm Springs International ShortFest
as part of the DigiCom 2014 Live and Learn portion

On My Way by Melissa Medina

Me by Brandon Honaker

Sunnylands Etiquette by Clarissa Cisneros

Technology in Education by Donielle Gerrell

I Am Human by Marissa Cruz

Bleeding Yellow by Jarelle Balanzat

Give Me A Second by Jonathan Serna

UCR Sold!

Congratulations to DI students Norma Vazquez, Jazmin Acevedo, and Sara Lopez for their Dia de Los Muertos prints selling from the PSUSD Showcase Art exhibition at UCR, Palm Desert! The work was purchased by Michelle Gonzales, Special Projects Manager at UCR for her personal collection and as gifts in appreciation for her USC doctoral professors.

- If you missed the show, you can view photos here -

2014 Golden Lions

Congratulations to the following DATA students for receiving Cathedral City High School Golden Lion awards!

Jason Bullen - Digital Arts

Melissa Medina - CSF, Social Science, Mathematics, and Digital Arts

Sara Lopez - CSF, English, Science, and The Golden Lion

Jarelle Balanzat - Social Sciences

Zaira Garcia - Digital Arts

Jonathan Serna (not pictured) - Digital Arts

DATA@DigiCom

The 2014 DigiCom Film Festival was an amazing success! Schools from throughout PSUSD were represented in celebration of digital storytelling through critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration. The Digital Arts Technology Academy made a return with 17 student films from DATA Digital Storytelling in addition to the DATA DI + Rio Vista Elementary collaboration, On My Way. 

DATA sincerly appreciates DigiCom and NBC Universal for supporting the talent of its students with nearly $18,000 this year!

DATA-SkillsUSA $4,500

The DI + Rio Vista Collaboration $2,000

and individual student awards
Jarelle Balanzat (UCLA) $2,500

Sara Lopez (UC Berkeley) $2,500
Melissa Medina (UC Santa Barbara) $2,500
Clarissa Cisneros (CSU Dominguez Hills) $1,500
Genevieve Knight (CSU San Bernardino) $1,000
Gabrielle Knight (CSU San Bernardino) $1,000

- Check out DI's DigiCom event photography here -

A Mentor Lost

The DATA program will truly miss one of it's most amazing community partners and mentors, Chas Allen.

Chas was the co-owner of Photo Colorgraphix, a career photographer, large-scale printing specialist, and aficionado of chilis from Hatch, New Mexico. He originally connected with the DI program during the Earth Through a Lens environmental photography series and hosted many visits to his shop in Palm Desert providing excellent hands-on learning experiences to students preparing for SkillsUSA. In 2013, he joined the DATA mentoring program and had a strong impact on his four student mentees.

Now Showing @ UCR

DATA Digital Imaging is very pleased to announce that six student photographs will be on display at the University of California, Riverside - Palm Desert campus. The images will be shown as part of a collection of PSUSD high school works from April 28th through June 6th and will be up during the Pathways to Success college scholarship awards night.

Congratulations to 

Norma Vazquez (Sophomore)

Melissa Guevara

Sara Lopez

Jonathan Serna

Jasmine Acevedo

Austyn Moreno

SkillsUSA California 2014

72 students (including 4 from Nellie Coffman Middle School) had an amazing experience at California's 47th Annual State Leadership Conference and SkillsUSA Championships, April 24th-27th, at the Town and Country Resort down in San Diego. 

16 DATA students medaled in 9 out the 21 skill and leadership competition areas entered, with four representing Cathedral City and the State of California in Screen Printing Technology, Audio/Radio Production, and Graphic Communications at the 50th Annual National Leadership and Skills Conference in Kansas City this June.

Not only did DATA students enjoy the challenges as competitors at the largest SkillsUSA event so far in California, but four also donated their time as Courtesy Core volunteers.

Congratulations to the following students!

Screen Printing Technology
Gold - Chris Rodriguez

Graphic Communications

Gold - Eric Cuahizio

Audio / Radio Production
Gold - Norma Vazquez and Jessie Rojo

Creed
Gold - Viviana Martinez

Bronze - Jennifer Reynoso

20 Second Elevator

Silver - Samuel Oropeza

Bronze - David Vo

Photography

Bronze - Jennifer Varela

Prepared Speech

Bronze - Sara Lopez

Chapter Display

Bronze - Andrea Alvarez, Denys Loaiza, and Yolanda Cortez

Career Pathway Showcase

Bronze - Denise Gonzalez, Isreal Chavez, and Bonnie Vo

A HUGE thank you to all the educators and community partners that helped to make this happen for Digital Arts Technology Academy students!!!

View State photos here!
Or visit www.DATASkillsUSA.org for more information

Fines Arts Creativity 2014

Congratulations to the following DI seniors for being recognized by the Palm Springs Art Museum at the Fine Arts Creativity Awards and Scholarship celebrations!

U.S. Bank for Creativity Award

Jonathan Serna

Self-Loathing Narcissist
Multimedia (Mixed-media photograph and digital video)

Watch his video here!

Georgia Fogelson Scholarship

Mayra Garcia

Attending Riverside Community College

Museum Associates Council 

Jarelle Balanzat

Attending UCLA Design Media Arts

and

Melissa Medina

Attending UC Santa Barbara  

Shooting Craftchella 2014

DATA Seniors Austyn Moreno and Jonathan Serna had the unique opportunity to apply their camera skills to one of the Coachella Valley's most coveted annual events- the Coachella Music and Arts Festival. For both weekends they worked alongside artists and in  partnership with the Coachella Valley Art Studios shooting photography and video in support of DIY craft culture.

Once again, this was an amazing learning experience that simply can not be replicated in the classroom and truly provides the means of "Focusing Student Creativity."

Hot Purple Photography for the Arts

For the fourth year in a row, DATA Digital Imaging has worked in partnership with Diane Funk Enterprises to shoot the Indian Wells Arts Festival. Last year, a new component was added to setup a solar powered green screen studio in collaboration with the local company Hot Purple Energy.

This year, not only did students shoot the event photography, interact with the public while operating the green screen studio, and Photoshopped attendees into an oil painting by artist Julie Dunn, they were also provided a pre-festival discussion in the DI studio with Palm Springs Life magazine web editor, Jim Powers, local life-style photographer/DATA Mentor Chris Miller, and Hot Purple Energy Owner David Herlinger. During the visit, students were treated to Miller's Coachella Fest photography and given clear art direction as to the type of images needed to promote such an event.

DATA DI is very pleased to continue such an excellent community partnership!

MakerBot for Creativity

DATA Digital Imaging is very pleased to announce that their first 3d printer has been funded, delivered, and put into action!

This was made possible through a special initiative to put a 3d printer in every high school in America through a partnership between MakerBot, DonorsChoose.org, and Autodesk in response to a call to action by President Obama. 

DI looks forward to bringing student 3d designs to life with this relatively new and powerful technology.

View our project here

Read more about the initiative here!