Inside Dallas ISD

Fernanda smiled widely as she got her hands on the big, white stuffed teddy bear on Monday, a little something to take the edge off of moving into a new country and entering the second grade at an unfamiliar school. The teddy bears were part of a donation delivered to the Margaret and Gilbert Herrera Student Intake Center this week by World Vision-North Texas. The organization delivered three pallets stacked with boxes of shoes sized for children of all ages and personal kits that include a blanket, hygiene items, school supplies and books. Since August, the intake center has welcomed about…

The Society of Women Engineers recently held an event to grow young women’s interest in engineering careers. Design Your World, which happened March 28 at Zan Wesley Holmes, Jr. Middle School, gave young women the opportunity to do hands-on experiments with engineers from across the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Only 5 percent of women who enter college end up graduating with engineering degrees, and events such as Design Your World aim to increase that percentage. “The best way to get young women interested in engineering is to talk to them about it and allow them to see role models (who are engineers),” said Dr. Meagan…

Culinary students from across Dallas ISD participated in a healthy foods cook-off hosted by the Diabetes Health and Wellness Institute on April 9 at the Latino Cultural Center. The event promoted healthy ways of preparing food and featured high school students, college students and chefs at the professional level. One Dallas ISD high school that participated was Wilmer-Hutchins High School. The students at Wilmer-Hutchins are part of a culinary program that teaches students how to prepare for their future after they graduate by teaching them how to be chefs. The three Wilmer-Hutchins students that are competing made creative cupcakes using…

Students at Dallas ISD’s Nancy Cochran Elementary School will have an outdoor classroom and water-conserving garden thanks to Dallas being ranked at the top among large cities for residents pledging to conserve water. Dallas won the 2014 National Mayor’s Challenge for Water Conservation, and among the prizes was a water-friendly pocket garden – one that will be added to the courtyard at Cochran. On Thursday, April 9, Mayor Mike Rawlings, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lead administrator Gina McCarthy, Toyota Chief Environmental Officer Kevin Butt and nationally renowned muralist Wyland helped break ground on the garden. The artist’s Wyland Foundation, in partnership…