SkillsUSA T-shirt Design Winner!

Congratulations to Di sophomore, Sebastian Vasquez, for his design being selected as the very first Cathedral City High School SkillsUSA t-shirt! His work will be worn by over 100 individuals.

2011-12 Teen Docent

Congratulations to Di junior Kevin Garcia for being selected for the Teen Docent Program at the Palm Springs Art Museum!

The dedicated students in this program are interviewed by Museum staff in the spring and spend the summer learning about art history and public speaking techniques. During the school year they tour classes from local elementary schools, teaching kids about the Museum's collection and exhibits. As part of the program, docents receive school credit, learn about various art genres, bond with students from other schools, and get a $250 stipend each semester they participate. 

Kicking Off Student Mentoring

On October 24th, eleven SkillsUSA officers and photography members kicked off the 2011-12 Student2Student Mentoring program with their first workshop at Nellie Coffman Middle School.

For Photography Workshop 1,  high school students shared some of their own images, taught composition basics, and shared quick photo editing tips using iPhoto.  The 25 middle school students will upload their final images to the Digital Arts Education Ning for feedback.

The student lead workshops will occur each month throughout the year at both James Workman and Nellie Coffman middle schools, introducing kids in the after school clubs to digital arts basics such as photography, graphics, animation, and video. High school students will also share their Digital Arts Technology Academy experiences and creativity while emphasizing career, college, and technical pursuits. 

Designing Ancient Youth

For several weeks during the month of October, local artist and 2005 Cathedral City High School grad Aaron Hansen, worked with students in the Di studio to develop the 2011-12 CCHS SkillsUSA and DATA Digital Imaging t-shirt designs.

Aaron, well known in the Coachella Valley for murals at PSUSD schools, fine art aerosol paintings, and one of a kind t-shirt designs, shared his insights with students on why "less is more" and how to find inspiration for color, light, and design from the natural world around you. Students presented designs along the way for discussion and critique with final images collected on Polldaddy.com for peer voting. For the SkillsUSA shirt, both local middle schools were included in the voting to help strengthen the connection for our new digital arts Student2Student mentoring program.

view the assignment here

Not only was this a great experience for students to work directly with a professional screen printer and compete to have their own art worn, it was excellent practice for this year's SkillsUSA State t-shirt design competition!

Check out Aaron Hansen's work @

Ancient Youth Truth

Di Sophomore Shooting Fourstars

Armed with a Canon 60d, DATA Di sophomore Austyn Moreno photographed Leisure 'til You Seizure sponsored by Epidemic Skateboard Shop . The October 15th event brought Fourstar clothing company skateboarding pros into the Coachella Valley for an autograph signing at the shop in Palm Desert and a skate demo at the Palm Springs Skate Park.

Check out out Austyn's Flickr stream from the signing here!

And his first go at video with a Canon DSLR

DATA-SkillsUSA T-shirt Design Contest

Click the individual image for a larger view. Make your selection and click 'Vote' below.  

Voting ends Thursday, October 20th at 3pm! 

All shirts designed by DATA digital imaging students