On Civic Responsibility

President Obama showed up at my swearing in to be a United States citizen today.  He may have only shown up in pre-taped video fashion, but regardless, he was there.  His message was a clear one: Being a citizen of the United States is a great privilege, but with great privilege comes great responsibility. Citizenship is a privilege that I have hoped to gain over the last 20 years living in this country, especially as I turned 18 and became old enough to exercise the right to vote.  While I am incredibly excited to finally exercise this right in November, I feel even more compelled to focus my energy on a broader issue that affects every citizen of the United States who has ever sought educational opportunities for themselves or others.  

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Bill’s Weekly Reflection: Slice

Next Friday we will hold our 8^th annual Slice of Pi fundraising event for DSST Public Schools.   This event is truly a celebration of our students, teachers and mission.  Unlike many other non-profit fundraisers, we have always chosen to hold the event in our schools and not a big hotel ballroom.  Why?

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Alums from Class of 2008 to Speak at Slice of Pi!

Next Friday, at our annual Slice of Pi celebration, we will welcome back two DSST distinguished alumni: Kamaria Hakeem and Christopher Torres, members of DSST’s very first graduating class, 2008.  In the summer of 2004, each took a giant leap of faith by entering the brand new, and as-yet-untested DSST Stapleton High School—and on April 13, 2012, at Slice of Pi, they will return to reflect upon their experiences and successes as a result of that pivotal decision.

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On the Road with Jake: Blended Learning

We started the official program of the Pearson Digital Learning Executive Forum with a discussion-based keynote by a very interesting and intelligent guy named Tom Vander Ark. I had the opportunity to chat with Tom briefly before his talk, and I found out that one of the many interesting things that he’s done in his time in education was to help write the initial grant proposal for DSST. I hope to have time later to discuss that startup process with him, but at the very least, I know that he’s a huge fan of the work we’re doing.

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Bill’s Weekly Reflection:  100%

100%! 

A big shout-out and congratulations are in order to Stapleton High School for 100% of the senior class earning acceptance to four-year colleges.  The entire Stapleton Campus, from 6th-grade on up, celebrated the senior class this morning!

We might be tempted to start taking an accomplishment such as this one for granted - it is the 5th consecutive class to earn 100% four-year college acceptance since our first graduating class of 2008. 

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