Inside Dallas ISD

Hillcrest High School graduating senior Lisbet Tudon Velazquez’s goal has been to make her parents, who immigrated to the United States almost 20 years ago, proud. Velazquez has balanced great grades, a job, playing lute in the school band—and much more—while in high school. She even attended a physics camp over the summer where she decided she wants to become an an engineer. Velazquez is set to study petroleum engineering in the fall at the University of Texas in Austin. Given all of Velazquez’s accomplishments, it’s no surprise that her parents are very proud.

Three nationally known children’s book authors visited Dallas ISD’s Thomas Tolbert Elementary School on Friday, May 19 – one of them possibly more notable for the eight years she lived in the White House. Former First Lady Laura Bush visited the school to announce the DFW-area winners of grants through the Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries. Schools in Denton and Arlington are receiving grants in the latest round of awards. She also read the book, Our Great Big Backyard, co-written with her daughter Jenna Bush Hager. The story follows a family as they take a road trip to visit…

Students at the Innovation, Design, Entrepreneurship Academy (IDEA) put their entrepreneurship skills into practice, pitching their ideas for new apps and accompanying business plans to local community leaders at the Startup Tech Showcase. Student teams developed the business plans and functioning prototypes for each application over the past year in partnership with the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE – pronounced “nifty”). Each plan was designed to meet a need they identified in their community. One team created “Notefy,”a note-taking app that allows students to easily share notes with one another and includes built-in tips and games to help teach positive…

Shyane Banuelos was recently selected as one of three 2017 Sulentic Family Foundation Scholarship winners. Banuelos is a senior at Bryan Adams High School and will attend the University of North Texas in Denton. “I was so overjoyed when I found out I was selected as a Sulentic Scholar,” Banuelos said. “I wanted to cry, because now I can go to school debt free.” Watch the above video to see what makes Banuelos special.