WAIS mentioned in Chron's OM Article

From: Pupils prep for world 'Odyssey' finals

Excerpt:
Walnut Bend will be joined at the world finals May 28-31 in Ames by four teams from area schools in Spring Branch Independent School District. Those teams come from Spring Woods High School, Westchester Academy for International Studies, Spring Oaks Middle School and Cornerstone Academy.

See the full article by Annette Baird on Chron.com

Odyssey of the Mind invites you to Sweet Tomatoes!

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Three WAIS Odyssey of the Mind teams competed in the Texas State Tournament on Saturday, April 12, 2014 at Spring Woods High School.

The 11th grade team (Mia Alfonso from Memorial High School, Mitchell Benson, Caroline Bik, Josh Diaz, Daniel Garcia, Cassandra Ung and Paige Williams) came in 1st place in Division 3, Problem 4 - the Stackable Structure. The team advanced to the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals, held May 28-31 at Iowa State University in Ames, IA. Coaches are Karen Benson and Jill Williams.

The 10th grade team (Adrian Villalobos, Diana Villarreal, Gustavo Rocha, Sara Farrokhi, Sam Farrokhi and Sarah Gualy) came in 4th place in Division 3, Problem 3 - It's How we Rule. Coaches are Elizabeth Villarreal and Farideh Farrokhi.

The 7th grade team (Kaivon Dixon, Dash Jacobs. Madeline Schulman, Meredith Schomburg, Brock Rhebergen, Brian Chung and Ethan Rosenthal) came in 8th place in Division 2, Problem 3 - It's How we Rule. Coaches are Lharissa Jacobs and Amy Schomburg.

We are so proud of these students and the hard work they did to achieve these wonderful results.

The 11th grade team is fundraising to help defray the travel expenses and you can help by joining them on Thursday, May 15th, at Sweet Tomatoes Restaurant, 8775 Katy Fwy, Houston, TX 77024 (on the southside feeder road of I-10, between Campbell and Voss).

If you bring the attached flyer and buy dinner and a drink, Sweet Tomatoes donates 15% of the proceeds to the team. You get a great meal and support us at the same time.  However, if you forget your flyer, a team representative can give you a replacement. Thanks so much for your consideration and we hope to see you at Sweet Tomatoes on Thursday night.

Are Pupils Permitted to have this Much Fun on a Project?

WAIS recently mentioned in Chron.com article by Tom Behrens:

Excerpt: In the meantime, other art students and teachers at Spring Branch school district campuses have put finishing touches on their own art cars. Spring Forest Middle School, Westchester Academy for International Studies, Academy of Choice and Memorial High School all have entries.

See: Tom Behren's article on Chron.com

ChildrenAtRisk announces top schools

The Children At Risk organization and the Education Resource Group partnered to research and rank the top schools in Houston. The public school rankings included 58 school districts plus charter schools around Houston. The results were announced Monday.

Of the top schools, majority of them are magnet or charter type programs. However, unlike WAIS, most screen and are very selective of which students are allowed to attend. We were still able to make the top 10; ranked at #8.

See the full listing on Click2Houston.com

Volume 30 of the Miacis, the 2012/13 edition of Westchester Academy's annual student publication, was recognized by publisher Balfour Yearbooks. Our publication will be listed for Honorable Recognition in Balfour's 30th edition of the Yearbook Yearbook. Only a bit over 15% of publications are recognized in Balfour's Yearbook Yearbook.

Created by WAIS yearbook students, Nicole Son of the class of 2013 served as editors and planned the creative direction and style of this year's book. The books visual theme focused on elements and layouts inspired by modern magazine design. The cover featured a matte designed by Nicole Son. WAIS faculty Shaun Wegscheid served as yearbook advisor.

In the past three years, this is the second edition of the Miacis to be recognized in Balfour's Yearbook Yearbook.

WAIS included in Niche's Top 38 Schools

Houston is home to two of the largest school districts in the state and dozens of top-notch schools - it's one of the factors bringing families to the area.

Education website Niche.com awards grades to K-12 schools and colleges across the nation, and we took a look at which Houston-area public high schools are the best of the best.

WAIS is the 27th school shown in the listing; on slide 28 (the first slide is generalized and does not include a school).

See the original posting on Chron.com

WAIS takes 2nd in Texas Region for Botball Robotics Competition

Westchester Academy for International Studies (WAIS) earns Texas Regional First Place Seeding, Third Place in Autonomous Robotics Competition, and Second Place Overall which includes competition, presentation, and documentation accumulative scores at Botball Texas Regional Tournament on March 22. 

Team captions are Preston Godinich and Kaivon Dixon. Members are Malcolm Eastman, Adam Fazal, Jonatan Rodriguez, Diego Velazquez, Ozzie Prior and Christwide Oscar. Faculty coaches are Cheryl Wegscheid and Shaun Wegscheid. Since Botball robots are always autonomous the team developed strategies using artificial intelligence with embedded systems. Teams learn to program their robots in using C and C++.

FYI- We lost to teams that had several years’ experience with Botball, as well as having much larger teams if 15 -20 students. Not bad for our first adventure into purely autonomous robots with real coding required!

Link to Botball's 2014 Texas Regional Tournament Results