Inside Dallas ISD

The Dallas ISD Career and Technical Education department, Hilltop Holdings and the Dallas Education Foundation recognized the winners of a monthslong entrepreneurship contest that took place at Dallas ISD Career Institutes. The first, second and third place winners at each of the three Career Institutes received awards and prizes for developing their own business idea, which involved creating an original product or service, coming up with a sound plan for launching the project and producing a Shark Tank-style video presentation for the judges. Hilltop Holdings, a Dallas-based financial services holding company, contacted the Dallas Education Foundation (DEF), the district’s direct…

When life gets tough for Thay Wah, a senior at Emmett J. Conrad High School, she relies on the two things she knows best: her passion for learning and the love she has for her family.  Her journey has been filled with ups and downs as she moved from Thailand to the U.S. at age 10, took on the daunting task of learning English in middle school and persevered through the COVID-19 pandemic. Now that she is ready to walk the graduation stage, she is looking ahead to how she will continue to grow at the University of Texas at…

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced that four Dallas ISD students are among this year’s National Merit $2,500 Scholarship winners. They are: Vedant N. Tapiavala – School for the Talented and Gifted (Townview TAG) Rithika Ganga – School of Science and Engineering Magnet (Townview SEM) Maanas K. Sharma – School of Science and Engineering Magnet (Townview SEM) Arjun Vikram – School of Science and Engineering Magnet (Townview SEM) The winners are the finalists in each state judged to have the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills, and potential for success in rigorous college studies. The number of winners named in…

Christopher Jenkins, reset center coordinator at Ann Richards STEAM Academy, has seen what can happen to young people when they lack a system of support. As a former parole officer for the State of Texas, he realized that his parolees all shared a similar story:  “The majority of them grew up with a mom who gave them the world, but Dad was absent, and they didn’t have a support system. They all shared that most of their issues began in school where they lacked any desire to gain a successful education and began acting up.” In his last year as…