Monthly Archives: June 2014

Prepare to Share a Story at this year’s Summer Leadership Institute

Are you planning to attend the Summer Leadership Institute this year?

If so, then start getting your wardrobe together now, as organizers will be hosting a fashion show and costume contest for attendees who dress up as their favorite literary characters on the last day of the event. Prizes will be awarded for the best costumes, too, so start thinking now about which figure has meant the most to you and come prepared to share your love of literature with others. Continue reading

Westside HS students compete at national Cooking Up Change competition

They didn’t win any official prizes at the recent Cooking Up Change competition, but for the three Westside High School students who participated in the event, the experience of making it to the national finals in Washington, D.C. was its own reward.

“It’s a huge achievement, not only for our school, but for our state,” said student Barrosha Boykin, who participated in the finals on June 9 with fellow rising seniors Santiago Castañeda and Andrew Winkle.

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T. H. Rogers students win National History Bee’s Team Bowl Championship

A love of knowledge and a taste for trivia have brought two students from HISD’s T.H. Rogers School recognition on the national stage.

Gram Brinson, who will enter HISD’s DeBakey High School for Health Professions as a freshman this fall, and Shomik Ghose, now an eighth-grader at T. H. Rogers, won the 2014 Team Bowl Championship coordinated by the National History Bee over the weekend.

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#EMERGEtour ends at Brown, Stonehill

The final day of a tour of northeast colleges and Universities by HISD EMERGE students meant stops at Stonehill College in Easton, Mass., and historic Brown University in Providence, R.I. The #EMERGEtour is took more than 95 students from 15 HISD high schools to nine top-tier university campuses last week.

Here are the students’ impressions of tour Day 4, in their own words: Continue reading

Board of Education to consider naming new elementary school after former governor

School being built under 2012 bond program would be named Mark White Elementary

The HISD Board of Education will consider Thursday naming a new elementary school being built in the West Houston area after former Texas Gov. Mark W. White Jr., who served in office from 1983 to 1987. Continue reading

K9 unit within HISD’s patrol division sniffs out trouble

Sasha spends most of her work day sniffing around HISD schools, searching for anything that doesn’t belong – drugs, weapons or suspects.

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Eastwood Academy design develops with collegiate model in mind

Eastwood Academy students want their new building to feel more like a college campus with learning commons where students can study independently and lounge with friends.

“Many school buildings look plain and boring,” said Eastwood student Rosemary Lugo. “I would like to see them bridge our building together almost like a mini-college with learning commons for students to hang out or read books by themselves.”

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Liberal arts colleges are focus of #EMERGEtour Day 3

Day 3 of four-day tour by HISD EMERGE students highlighted three of the northeast’s strongest liberal arts schools — Brandeis, Clark, and Boston College. The two private colleges and one private university consistently rank high on various higher education listings, including U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges.

The #EMERGEtour is taking more than 95 students from 15 HISD high schools to nine top-tier university campuses this week.

Here are the students’ impressions of tour Day 3, in their own words: Continue reading

Burbank MS student named national finalist in ‘Do the Write Thing Challenge’

Fatima Menendez

Burbank Middle School student Fatima Menendez has her own ideas about what violence means.

“It’s everything from being impatient in morning traffic, [to] talking back to your elders, and not knowing how to simply apologize,” she says in an essay she submitted to the Do the Write Thing Challenge essay contest.

But the eighth-grader understands the importance of resisting the urge to lash out physically. “Violence is…like poison, it dominates and destroys,” she writes. “We are the United States of America, [and] we need to live up to that name. Stereotypes keep us from flipping the page and seeing past the cover and into the content. We need to looking past stereotypes and really…understand each other.” Continue reading