Friday, December 21, 2012

IB Science News @ WAIS

International Baccalaureate (IB) students in the 11th and 12th grade program at Westchester Academy for International Studies (WAIS) presented special group projects in science to the entire school earlier this year. Known as the Group 4 Project...

See the full article on SBISD's School Zone


Tuesday, November 20, 2012

German Exchange Program facilitates understanding others

Monday, October 8th, Alexander Kolloge and 13 other high school students from Germany arrived to Houston. The students will stay with host families from the Westchester Academy for International Studies and Stratford High School communities.

Through Oct. 26, the German students will shadow their American counterparts, getting a feel for what school is like here. They’ll also go on several planned field trips around the greater Houston area, and on weekends, take side trips and participate in American life with their host families.

In June, a group of Houston students spent four weeks in Germany. The program is coordinated at Westchester by German teacher Juergen Carl Mueller.

They started with a couple days in Cologne before taking a train to Ganderkesee to meet and stay with their host families, Mueller said. Ganderkesee is a town of about 30,000 in northwest Germany, near Bremen. They spent three weeks attending school at Gymnasium Ganderkesee. The German school system features a wider variety of educational options than the American school system. A Gymnasium is a school for the students who intend to continue education at University or College, as opposed to those planning on going straight into industry.

On off days and weekends, the students took field trips including visiting major city of Hamburg and the German Emigration Center in Bremerhaven- where records for Central Europe are held. Students also participated in other activities with their host families throughout the 3 week period.

This year is the third exchange between the Spring Branch ISD students and Ganderkesee, Mueller said. The students who traveled this past year to Germany are Emily Crawford and John Hopes from Stratford and Theodore Bauer, Mitchell Barry, Genesis Frazar, John Dakota Kelly, Autumn Riehle, Victoria Sarnoff, Alexey Schmidt, and Ryan Wong from Westchester, and Hannah Shutka of Robert E. Lee High School.

The German trip ended with three days in Berlin, where students toured the Reichstag, and watched games of the European Cup on a large screen near the Brandenberg Gate. The German students are attending school during their time in Houston, and will also take field trips to locations including Space Center Houston, the San Jacinto Battleground, KUHF Studios, the African-American Library at the Gregory School, Rice University, "Death of a Salesman" at the Alley Theater, and Ballet Folklorico de Mexico at the Miller Outdoor Theater.

Kolloge said that the American influence in Germany is strong, especially pop culture. He said that young people in Germany want to look like Americans and enjoy American music and fast food outlets. College reports enjoying learning about the differences in the cultures. Kolloge’s host, WAIS sophomore Theodore Bauer, spent his early elementary years in England and had been to Germany before last summer’s trip.

“It was interesting going to school with them and seeing what that was like,” Bauer said. Bauer has taken German at WAIS since 6th grade and said that while he can “get around,” his skills are still “less than perfect.”

See: related article by Rusty Graham on the Memorial Examiner
See: related article on SBISD's School Zone

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Local Scouts Complete Eagle Projects

Six Scouts from Spring Woods High and Westchester Academy for International Studies completed their Eagle projects at the high school located on Tiger Trail at Gessner...
Three of which are from Westchester: Jared, Jeremy, & Josh

See the full article on SBISD's School Zone

Wais Theatre presents a Fairy Tale that turns Grimm

Ghosts and goblins should be long gone when "Into the Woods" opens Thursday, Nov. 1 at Westchester Academy for International Studies, but haunting the show will be a spirit's warning, "Actions have consequences - even for future generations."

"The kids are really having a lot of fun with the fairy-tale interpretations and light-hearted ...
read the full article by Don Maines on Chron.com

Monday, October 29, 2012

Students explore nature with No Child Left Inside Program

Excerpt: Laura Sigworth, a Westchester Academy teacher in Spring Branch, has been bringing her senior International Baccalaureate biology students to the conservancy for the past two years after learning about the program at a seminar for children at risk.

See the full article by Crystal Simmons on the Cyprus Creek Mirror


Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Tommy Tune competitor for Into the Woods

Theatre Under the Stars (TUTS) announces 45 Houston area high schools competing in the 11th annual Tommy Tune Awards.

Developed by TUTS in 2002, the Tommy Tune Awards honor musical theatre excellence at the high school level, celebrating outstanding student achievement in 15 categories. Throughout this school year, a team of Houston-based theatre professionals will evaluate the participating high schools’ productions and announce winners in April of 2013.

The Tommy Tune Awards not only acknowledge high caliber performances, but also encourage further growth by providing scholarships, the opportunity to compete at the national level, and recognition from peers.

Westchester will compete in this year's Tommy Tune Awards with performances of Into the Woods on November 1-3 & 8-10 at 7:30 pm. 

See: Tommy Tunes Announcement on YourFortbendNews.com

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

IB Diploma Graduates

At Westchester Academy for International Studies, 21students have earned the prestigious IB Diploma, program leaders report.

International Baccalaureate Diplomas awarded to 21 students
Twenty-one seniors enrolled in the International Baccalaureate (IB) program at Westchester Academy for International Studies (WAIS), a district charter school, have earned the prestigious IB Diploma this year, program leaders report.
 Program Coordinator Valerie Harelson reports that May’s class of IB Diploma recipients is the biggest in Westchester history. In addition, the average score for all IB Diploma Candidates in this special program has increased from 3.5 in 2009 to 4.1 this year. Exams are scored from 1 to 7, with 4 or above as passing scores.
 “Both teacher and students have worked hard, and we are proud of the results,” Harelson said. “Our goal is for our WAIS students to challenge themselves and be prepared and confident as they pursue their post-secondary goals. We’re also pleased that our IB Diploma program attracts an increasing number of full IB Diploma student candidates as well as students taking one or more individual IB courses.”
 WAIS was formed a decade ago as a district charter middle and high school campus. This year’s IB Diploma awards add to this district charter high school’s recent accolades. Last fall, WAIS received the nation’s highest ranking from the U.S. Dept. of Education, the Blue Ribbon School designation.
 In the past three years, 35 graduates have won the highly regarded IB Diploma: 13 diplomas were awarded last year, 16 in 2010, and six in 2009. A total of 63 IB Diplomas have been awarded since the first graduating class of IB Diploma students in 2007.
 To earn the IB Diploma, students devote their junior and senior years to fulfilling a lengthy program, which requires English, a foreign language, math, science, history or social studies, and a fine arts class, as well as a Theory of Knowledge course.
 In addition, students write a 4,000-word research paper, fulfill other class activities and participate in a variety of activities, including traditional community service projects.
 IB Diploma recipients this year included three Bilingual Diploma award recipients, all of whom are fluent in Spanish. They are Kelsey Miller and Roger Torres, who plant to attend the University of Houston, and Leticia Trevino, who will join the freshman class at Rice University soon.
 An additional IB Diploma recipient, Jarred Gillie, was accepted into the nation’s top training school for naval officers, the U.S. Naval Academy located in Annapolis, Md.

The 17 other new IB Diploma graduates and their colleges and universities are:
  • Jennifer Andrade, University of Texas at Austin 
  • Gabriela Belmarez, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Mass. 
  • Yvar Carcaces, University of Houston 
  • Rachael Dunn, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Wash. 
  • Nathan Dwyer, University of Houston 
  • Gwenn Fineran, St. Edwards University, Austin, Texas 
  • Lilly Gonzales, University of Houston 
  • Lupita Herrera, Sam Houston University, Huntsville, Texas 
  • Theodore Leung, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 
  • Iman Mazloum, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pa. 
  • Craig Miller, University of Texas at Dallas 
  • Liam Miner, Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas 
  • Richey Puntarelli, Not Available at This Time 
  • Johanna Rauch, Karl-Franzens Universitat (University of Graz), Graz, Austria 
  • Kent Robinson, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State Univ., Blacksburg, Va. 
  • Elena Streuding, Blinn College, Brenham, Texas 
  • Emily Taylor, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Australia

May graduate Jennifer Andrade plans to major in biology at the University of Texas at Austin. Today, she is thinking about medical school and a possible career as a pediatrician. She believes that the structures of independent inquiry and study found in the IB program will help her at UT.
 “IB is very different. You are on your own with many projects. For me, it was a good experience and I do believe that I am better prepared for the college lectures and note taking. IB, like college, is for those who are comfortable with independent study and learning,” Jennifer said.

 Trinity University-bound Liam Miner is considering medicine, too. When a summer assignment rolled in from Trinity’s first-year program to compile an annotated bibliography, Liam neither cracked a sweat nor reached for a Google dictionary explanation. “I said this will be easy. I’ve done this before. In IB, overall, you have to be more organized than the average student, and I think that’s a good thing,” he said.

Friday, July 27, 2012

WAIS Middle school students attend Houston Prep college program

Paloma June, Celesta Monsivaiz, Alexis Gaxiola, Raman Srivastava, Nancy Uroza, Adrian Villalobos are among twenty two SBISD middle school students chosen to attend a six-week, mathematics-based academic enrichment program at the Univeristy of Houston (UHD) earlier this summer.


The program, called Houston Prep, identifies high-achieving young teenagers with an interest in science, technology, engineering and other mathematics-based disciplines, often referred to as STEM. One of the program’s main goals is to also increase the likelihood that these students, most of whom are minorities, will pursue careers in these important fields.
Since it began in 1989, Houston Prep has enrolled about 3,000 students. Follow-up surveys of program participants found 99.9 percent of the students had graduated from high school, 99 percent were enrolled as college students, and about half were majoring in high-need STEM disciplines.
SBISD students selected for this year’s Houston Prep program attended Landrum and Northbrook middle schools and Westchester Academy for International Studies. Students attended classes at UHD from June 11 through July 20. Students from underserved groups, including young women, are encouraged to apply.
At UHD, students in the four-year Houston Prep program were introduced to academics ranging from first-year engineering, logic and problem solving classes. After four years, students can earn up to six credits in dual high school and college computer science and psychology. The classes are taught by college professors, scientists, engineers, mathematicians and high school teachers.
In addition to classroom work, field trips are taken to NASA and the Museum of Natural Science. An Engineering Day with corporate presenters and special guests was also held.
Students learn by doing at Houston Prep. At Engineering Day this year, for example, Landrum Middle School eighth-graders Francisco Giron and Jesus Perez joined other students in designing, planning, building and then weight load testing a bridge built out of linguini noodles.
“I think this is an awesome program. We do such awesome things in our engineering classes,” Jesus said. He’s interested in “building things,” as well as soccer. “This program teaches you how to do college type things vs. spending summer just watching TV.”
Said Francisco, “I like engineering, and I’m good working with computers. This program has helped me learn more about engineering and how to grow up and be an engineer.”
Robert Dantzler, who teaches at Landrum Middle School, is one of several instructors who are employed during Houston Prep. His own son, Javaughn, a ninth-grader, also attended Prep classes this year.
“The program really develops math and science skills. It is organized with those skills in mind,” he said. “I’m very pro-enrichment for students. Our students need access to summer enrichment program like the one here that increases math and science skills. It’s definitely beneficial.”
Professor Richard Aló is program director of Houston Prep and executive director of UHD’s Center for Computational Science and Advanced Distributed Simulation. He states that the program is “making a difference in producing exceptional students who will go on to become leaders in engineering, mathematics and science.”
“Moving forward into the next decade without such efforts, our nation is risking its leadership role in the high technology society that we have developed,” he has also said.
“The intent of Houston Prep is to provide students with the academic and intellectual competencies they will need to succeed in high school, in college preparation courses, and in college programs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” Houston Prep Coordinator Sangeeta Gad said.
“Participating students get ahead of their peers in their schools, meet new friends from all over the city, and learn from them,” she added. “Participation in Houston Prep also gives students glimpses into higher education, college professors and STEM curriculum."

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

SBISD YouTube video on WAIS Blue Ribbon status

SBISD published a video on their YouTube channel about
WAIS' status as a federally recognized Blue Ribbon school. 

Watch the video below.


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