On April 21, 2014, U.S. News and World Report announced its 2014 Best High Schools Rankings (based on student achievement data explained here). Congratulations to the entire DASH community for helping our school earn the following extraordinary recognition:
#19 public high school in the nation (out of 31,242)
#3 high school in the state of Florida (out of 687)
#8 American magnet high school (out of 269)
Click each image below for a printable version of our April school newsletter.
Playing!
Picnic-ing!
Sleeping!
Above: Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine talks about a rail that would connect Downtown to Miami Beach.
For the second year running, The Atlantic Magazine hosted an event called Start-up City: Miami. In simple terms, it is a conference for all sorts of people involved in supporting new companies, many of which have to do with technology. Though the majority of us at DASH do not consider ourselves budding entrepreneurs, the four DASH students who attended with Mr. Cabrera on Monday found a lot to learn. For instance, speaker Colin Raney talked about the importance of branding. To him, the job of a company is “explaining to the world what the future will be,” and for those of us in the graphics program, that is a message to take to heart. As for the future architects among us, Josh Linkner made a wonderful point during his presentation that “entrepreneurship and city building are one and the same thing”. Not to mention all the city building initiatives brought up by Miami Beach mayor Philip Levine who animatedly pitched his ideas to the crowd.
One point iterated by nearly every speaker at the conference is the importance of keeping talent in Miami. Our city has immense potential for growth, and growth is happening now. This message resonated with me in relation to all the seniors deciding on whether to study in a different state or stay local. Though each decision is individual and complex, perhaps it is a point to remember that Miami is mobilizing its forces, and fresh talent is needed every day.
I could certainly go on about all the interesting points made during the presentations –did you know investors take aerial photos of Walmart parking lots to know whether business is booming?–, but fortunately, it is easy to see for yourself. Head over to the event agenda website and see videos of what you missed. Overall, it was an enriching experience to see how the design skills we are cultivating now will be applied in the real world later. All of us here have a vision of how we want to shape the future, and the more we know about how other people want to do the same, the better equipped we will be to make our ideas reality.
DASH Dispatch 