[in Just-] by E. E. Cummings

New in this week's Dragon's Fire

From Mr. Alex's AP art class:

Reserve Your Free Auction Ticket Now!

Reserve your free ticket to our big school fundraising event, benefiting TCS students. Hosted by the CSCA (TCS's PTSA), let's raise money to enrich your student's experience at The Center School. We fund various items such as student activities and groups, guest speaker honorariums, and teacher training and workshops, to name a few. Why reserve a free ticket? So we can send you a link to this online event. And so you can be in the know about all the fun we have planned for you! Let's Come Together for our students!

Can you donate an auction Item? We are still accepting donations! To donate, go here and click on "Donate Auction Item".

Mr. Alex here happy to announce that we will have clay kits ready for pick up starting this coming Mon, Mar 1 until Mon, March 8. Pottery Northwest is open 10 am to 8 pm every day. Students need these kits in order to participate in class. Unfortunately, I will not be on-site at Pottery Northwest to help distribute clay kits. However, this attachment includes all the information you need. (This document is also posted to Schoology in an update about our partnership with Pottery Northwest for Sculpture class.)

2nd semester Sculpture class will partner remotely with a Pottery Northwest teaching-artist starting on Tue, Mar 9 thru Tue, Apr 20 (with spring break Apr 12–16). During this time, we will use the same Teams meeting link as we do now, and I will be supporting both the teaching artist and students to help everyone be successful. I will be talking about this more in class soon!

Students and parents, please complete the survey linked here about picking up clay kits and dropping off and picking up clay sculptures. The same survey is linked in the attached doc. You only need to complete this survey once.

10th and 11th graders, if you are interested in Running Start for the 2021–2022 school year, please attend the Running Start Information Meeting via Teams on Wed, Mar 10 at 12–1 pm to learn about the program and the application process. Parents are welcome to attend.

The service-learning graduation requirement for the Class of 2021 has been waived by the school board. If you have not accumulated 60 hours of volunteer service work by the graduation deadline, you will still be able to graduate.

If you are a senior and you are currently volunteering in a safe place, please continue your volunteer service. Volunteering not only benefits the community, but it also give the volunteer a boost of self-confidence and feeling of accomplishment. Community service may also open the doors to career connections as well as provide valuable work experience.

If you are a 9th–11th grade student, please continue to find safe ways to volunteer. One way to get involved and accrue service hours is by attending the Interact Service Club at TCS. The club meets twice a month on Mondays. Our next meeting is Mon, Feb 22 at 12:30 pm. Go to the Interact Teams channel to attend. Email Ms. Hayes (mrhayes@seattleschools.org) for more information.

For more ways to volunteer, check service learning opportunities at the TCS Career Center page.

Do you want to learn advanced, hands-on, practical career skills and have the opportunity to earn industry certification, dual college credit, or participate in an internship or pre-apprenticeship while still attending high school? Apply for a Seattle Skills Center school year course!

Seattle School District high school students can enroll in one half day Skills Center course for up to 3 high school credits per year, while still attending regular school the other half of the school day. You can still participate in sports, activities, and stay connected with friends. Each class requires 3 periods per day (periods 1–3 for am classes, and periods 4–6 for pm classes).Talk with your school counselor to make sure it will work with your schedule. See the webpage for full course descriptions and the easy required online application. Students get a taxi, van, or school bus to and from their Skills Center class, so no worries about long commutes on the Metro or Light Rail. See the map of Skills Center locations here.

New this week in bold. Check the Career Center Announcements webpage for details and links.

Check the Career Center page for more information. Questions? Contact Mr. Rho at ewrho@seattleschools.org.

TCS's Mr. Rho and the UW Dream Workshop have collaborated to create this career and college readiness workbook for TCS rising juniors and seniors. View the workbook now.

Partnerships across Pierce and King County have come together to host a week long (1–2 hours a day) virtual healthcare career exploration event Apr 26–30. Events will all be in the afternoon and the agenda, while still in development, looks roughly like this:

Interested? Email Ms. Wynn for more information at wypottingerlev@seattleschools.org.

YouthForce has weekly lectures/workshops online, Wednesdays 4–5 pm. Visit the website to view themes (job searches, banking/savings, resumes, health care careers, retail jobs, and more).

The Seattle Public Library Foundation is pleased to host the Stimson Bullitt Civic Courage Scholarship competition. High school seniors and undergraduate students who live, work, or attend school in Seattle are invited to participate.The competition asks students to write an essay about an individual or group of individuals from WA state who have demonstrated civic courage on an issue of importance to the community at great personal, political, or professional risk. Apply now for the 2021 competition! The deadline for submissions is Mar 15.

A Scholarship Opportunity for African American Students Interested in Journalism with awards of $500–$2,500. Open to graduating high school seniors and undergraduate students of the African American Diaspora studying in WA. Award recipients will be matched with a mentor from the Seattle Association of Black Journalists. This is a great launching point for a career in journalism, photography, broadcasting, documentary film/audio production. Application deadline is Mar 31. Apply now.

See more scholarship opportunities in the SPS February scholarship bulletin.

Join SPS careers teachers are planning a virtual, district-wide career fair. We are looking for 3–5 students per high school to help with the planning, marketing, and even the selection of career topics. This is an opportunity for students to earn service hours from home. Meetings will be Wednesdays from 2–3 pm (but that could change depending on the students’ input) and will be held virtually with a core group of SPS teachers and local Seattle business people who will provide mentorship and guidance. Apply here.

The Leaders of Today Competition prompts students to write a short essay or film a video about a specific change they wish to enact in one of the following three categories:

The winners of the competition, our “2021 Leaders of Today Youth Visionaries,” will get the unique opportunity to work with one of our adult ambassadors, ranging from an MIT Professor to the mayor of the City of Bellevue, to realize these changes. This collaboration can lead to mentorships and one of a kind leadership positions. Find more information about our competition and organization on our website. Or read the flyer.

The AIGA’s LINK program brings professional artists into the studio (and into your home for remote events) to work with teens one Saturday a month. There have been illustrators, sculptors, sneaker designers, florists—tons of creativity! Coming up: watercolor and design-thinking workshops. Students should plan to attend all Saturdays through May. Seniors qualify for wonderful college scholarships from Link! See the application for workshops.

Gage Academy has Friday night remote art studio lessons for teens. Apply here. Check out their virtual teen classes, too!

Join this free virtual biotech hackathon for students in grades 8–12 on Apr 6–7. There are going to be several prizes, including monetary awards of $250 for winning teams! Learn more about the eligibility rules, healthcare challenge, fun workshops, and more details. Register now to get a head start.