Thursday, December 17, 2015

IB Diploma Ceremony


Recent alumni return to WAIS to receive their IB Diplomas and reconnect with campus, faculty, and current students. In addition to the presentation, current IB Diploma and Career-related Candidates were acknowledged, and multiple speakers shared their viewpoints. Speakers included our director Jennifer Collier, our new superintendent Scott Muri, and recent WAIS graduates.

Following the ceremony, students were able to briefly socialize and reconnect with current students, sharing their successes and advice based on their experiences at university.



Neither Dr. Muri nor Mrs. Collier make light of the difficulty of the work required by students at WAIS. Instead, the value and importance of the work is emphasized, as the students of today will be the workers, the professionals, the policy makers, the ones who hold together the world of the future. Mrs. Collier spoke not only on the importance of our students' choosing a greater level of challenge, but also on how many are choosing to accept it.

WAIS continues to see the number of IB Diploma Candidates increase year after year, as well as adds IB Career-related Candidates to the mix this year. Several year ago, the district began its T24 initiative- to double the number of students entering and completing programs offering a technical, 2-year, 4-year degree, or serving in the military. At the time, WAIS had over 70% of students applying to and receiving acceptances to college and/or university. The WAIS class of 2015 has more than 90% of the students actively attending college or university (or enrolled in the military). The graduation rate is harder to track, but multiple 2013 students have already shared announcements on receiving their Associates degrees as they continue toward their Bachelor's.

Alumni and IB Diploma recipient Danielle Couch, attending Trinity University, spoke about her experiences in the IB Diploma Programme at WAIS. She acknowledged her difficulty with it, her uncertainty, her fear of not scoring high enough to earn the internationally recognized IB Diploma, and her perseverance to keep trying and not give up. When notification of her scores came from the IB, she wasn't even sure if she wanted to open them, despite expecting only disappointment, she chose to open them. She described her surreal experience of reading the notification that she not only did she score higher than she expected, but that she would receive the International Baccalaureate Diploma in addition to the Texas High School Diploma awarded to her in June.

Other IB Diploma Candidates and Recipients of 2015 are attending schools including University of Texas in Austin, University of Houston, Texas A&M in College Station, Notre Dame, Cornell University, and others. 2015 Diploma students included several Bilingual Diploma recipients. By Texas state law, students earning the IB Diploma are awarded a minimum of 24 credit hours at public universities and colleges in Texas. However, many of our students are awarded more than the minimum- some as high as 40 credit hours.


A story on this event was also published on the SBISD School Zone:
WAIS IB Graduates Implored to Change the World



Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Advanced Choir at Carrabbas


Advanced Choir Students are singing for the next few nights at Carrabbas Italian Grill, as part of their Carrabba's Cares initiatives. Part of Carrabba's proceeds for customers choosing to help support our students will go to the WAIS Choir.


Saturday, December 12, 2015

The Hour of Code 2015


WAIS participated in this year's Hour of Code. This is our third year to participate in the Hour of Code. The Hour of Code event has a massive number of participants logging in from across the whole world. Its aim is to increase student awareness of coding and computer science.

The event and its publicity is spearheaded by Code.org and related site HourofCode.com. Each year, the Hour of Code event has reached more and more students from across the world. During the first event three years ago, they had hoped that they'd see a million participants across the US. Instead, it caught on across the globe. What was expected to be a hopeful estimate of 1 million in the US became over 20 million across the world. For 2015, the estimate is nearly 200 million participants.

Hour of Code receives a wide variety of support, both from educators and parents, but also from industry. If you ask parents, 9 of 10 say they want their student to have exposure to coding. Despite how technologically involved our world is becoming, when Hour of Code started 3 years ago, less than 1 of 10 schools offered coding classes. These numbers have greatly improved in the past 3 years, however, there are still a lot of students who don't have access to courses that teach programming.

Through the Hour of Code, hundreds of our students try out different programming activities from various providers participating in the event. This includes activities like Code.org's Programming with Minecraft and StarWars, Lightbot, Codester, and many more. All of our 9th grade students will participate in a programming unit in their Digital Communications class, and programming activities are also included in our 6th grade Tech Apps/Design course. Students who enjoy programming and the Hour of Code can continue learning about the topic in Intro to Robotics, Intro to Computer Science, Computer Science I & II, Robotics Programming & Design, and/or in Web Design.


Friday, December 11, 2015

Mayoral Candidate Sylvester Turner speaks with Students


Candidate Sylvester Turner, for the 2015 Houston Mayoral Election, spoke with WAIS government students today. Turner shared with students about how local politics work. Turner also spoke on his position and his perspectives regarding Houston's issues and potential solutions.

The general election for Houston's next mayor was held in November, but no candidate took majority of the votes. The run-off election will be held tomorrow between the two leading candidates, Bill King and Sylvester Turner. Early voting dates for the run-off occurred Dec. 2nd - 8th.

Turner holds a degree in political science from the University of Houston, and a degree from Harvard Law. Turner has already served 25 years on the Texas Legislature. Turner also ran for Houston Mayor in 1991 and 2003, beat by Bob Lanier and Bill White respectively. During the General Election in November, Turner was leading the votes, with Bill King in the runner up position.

If elected, Turner will be Houston's second African-American mayor, following Annise Parker, Houston's second female mayor. Houston's first African-American mayor was Lee Brown (1998-2003), and Houston's first female mayor was Kathy Whitmire (1982-1991).

Candidate Bill King spoke with WAIS students in November.



Photography by WAIS student Brenda Robles. 
Robles is on Miacis staff.

Friday, December 4, 2015

Annual Winter Concert


The Westchester Academy Choir performed their annual Winter Concert this evening. With over 10 years now, this event has become a long standing tradition and the number of participating choir students has never been greater. Despite our theater featuring a wider stage than most, participants still overflow what it can accommodate.

The performance included a variety of festive holiday songs. Friends and families of WAIS were invited to the performance free of charge and toward the end were invited to sing along.

Dr. Shamoo of Rice U speaks on Superbugs


Dr. Yousif Shamoo, Professor of BioSciences at Rice University, visits the Westchester Campus today and speaks with students about his research in the medical field. Dr. Shamoo obtained his bachelor's from Carnegie Mellon, his doctorate from Yale, and has coauthored numerous academic articles in his areas of study. Dr. Shamoo speaks specifically on his research in molecular evolution, increase in drug resistant pathogens, and how this is affecting the medical field. Upper School students were invited to attend during our extended lunch period today.

Antimicrobial drugs, including antibiotics have greatly prevent the spread of infectious diseases over the last 70 years. They've saved countless lives, and are one of the most important advances in the medical field. However, they've also spurred evolution within pathogens- resulting in more antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in pathogens. This results in diseases being harder to treat and medicines that once worked becoming ineffective. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), at least 2 million Americans are infected with resistant bacteria each year. At least 23,000 of them die as a direct result from these infections.

Dr. Shamoo also provides a Q&A session with students, engages in a recorded interview with a WAIS IB Diploma student, and shares with students more general information about the sort of classes he teaches and the experiences students in this field at Rice can engage in.



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