This is an archive of the IMPACT CTE pathway from 2016-2021. It exists as a record of what was accomplished and how the pathway was structured during its initial five years.
For up to date information on IMPACT, please visit the Official Indio High School website.
For the main event of our chapter’s inaugural year, 7 IMPACT students traveled to Santa Clara to attend the California DECA State Career Development Conference (SCDC) where they competed against more than 2,000 students in areas of Entrepreneurship, Marketing, and Business. Outside of competitions there were workshops, keynotes presentations, state officer elections, and general member sessions.
Chapter President Jorge Paredes represents IMPACT on stage during the DECA “Parade of Chapters”
More than competition, the conference was a chance to meet and network with driven and motivated students from all over the state. The chance to travel and spend time outside of their comfort zones gave students new perspectives and outlooks as they build skillsets that will carry on into the world of college and careers.
This wraps up the main competitive portion of our year. From here, the IMPACT DECA chapter will begin officer selection and development for next year along with planning for the many upcoming events and competitions.
For the fourth consecutive year IMPACT students are taking on the role of filmmakers for the Youth Town Hall Speaker Series hosted by Desert Town Hall.
Students are responsible for attending each event and filming interviews, b-roll footage, and anything else needed to create short promotional videos and mini documentaries.
This year we’re branching out a bit, and several students are taking on the role of on-screen reporters as they dive into the experiences and perspectives of Youth Ambassadors and the event sponsors. Three to five finished projects with real-world applications should emerge from each of the four events this season.
From January 10-12, 6 IMPACT students competed at the DECA SoCal Career Development Conference in Anaheim. The conference included individual and team events, workshops, written exams, and networking.
Christian Madrid earned a finalist position in Entrepreneurship Role Play. Johnny Castro and Leslie Mejia were finalists in Buying, Selling, and Merchandising Team Decision Making, and Johnny was also recognized as a finalist for the written exam portion of the event.
Up next is the California State Conference at the end of February, which is a qualifying event for the DECA International Career Development Conference in Nashville this April.
On December 18, IHS hosted its second school-wide Career Day.
Creative Entrepreneur Kevin Ramirez shared his journey from learning Photoshop basics while in high school, to becoming a freelance designer, starting his own business, and achieving a childhood dream of becoming a Walt Disney Imagineer.
Kevin’s journey is an important and relatable one that highlights the importance of pursuing your curiosities and interests while keeping a strong-willed determination to overcome adversity. This is especially true in the digital media realm, where the biggest limit is how much time and energy you’re willing to dedicate towards building your skills.
For students in a 4 year digital media pathway who all have their own Adobe Creative Cloud accounts, this is a valuable and motivating lesson.
On November 23, 40 IMPACT students embarked on the now annual trip to Disneyland for a Youth Education Series workshop. This year’s event focused on branding and marketing with Disney’s history and attractions serving as real world examples.
Students developed their own marketing teams where they collaborated to create mock branding and marketing materials for the Disney Park.
For three years in a row now, this trip has served as an awesome educational opportunity as well as a crucial team bonding experience for IMPACT students in all grade levels. Plus Disneyland during the holidays is all kinds of incredible.
IMPACT is home to the first DECA chapter in the Coachella Valley, and our first official DECA event took place form 11/8 to 11/10 in Anaheim as 5 students participated in DECA’s first Fall Leadership Development Conference.
The 3 day even included workshops, keynotes, professional development, and competition. Student were able to choose from Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Hospitality tracks, and were able to collaborate in teams with other schools to develop pitches and presentations for original concepts.
The next step is to prepare for the SoCal District and California State Career Development conferences in January and February!
A small group IMPACT students kicked off a multi-session workshop with Mark Deubner of Deubner Design. The first workshop dove into a pre-digital world, teaching students the fundamentals of design from a time when “layers” actually meant layers, and type had to be applied manually.
From here, Mark will take the group through a branding design project for a real-world client.
The City of Indio selected artwork from two IMPACT seniors, Sachiel Martinez and Andres Castro, as part of the newest cohort of additions to the “Miles Avenue Bridge Project.” The artwork will be fabricated into metal components that will be permanently installed into the Miles Avenue Bridge in Indio.
In addition to having their artwork displayed in the city, Sachiel and Andres were awarded $500 prizes and given special recognition by the Indio City Council on Wednesday, October 9th.
The Indio Public Arts and Historic Preservation Commission is always seeking new artwork form students in grades K-12 for the Miles Avenue Bridge Project.
Hi, it’s me Tom Buck. I’m the IMPACT Instructor/Coordinator, and I write most of the posts on this site. On May 29th, I was honored to be named the 2020 Riverside County Teacher of the Year. The yearlong application and interview process culminated in a surprise announcement during the Rajah Report, a live show produced daily by IMPACT’s KIHS Broadcasting. I cried, it was embarrassing, but WOW, what a great shock!
I wanted to write a post about it here, but felt VERY strange doing so in the third person, so this is just from me, in the first person. I don’t know what to say other than thank you to all of my incredible students, colleagues and family (including the dogs). I was shocked enough to be Teacher of the Year for my school site and district last year, so being recognized county-wide is a bit unbelievable.
I’m proud to not only represent Riverside County, but also Desert Sands USD, and my home city of Indio and Indio High School. I’m happy that this recognition also demonstrates the impact of digital media on the world around us. As much as I do put in a lot of extra time and energy to my job, I am very lucky to be able to spend everyday sharing something as relevant, important, and engaging as digital media.
I appreciate the endless kindness and support pouring in from all directions.
IMPACT students were interviewed by local news about the announcement.
There’s a terrific article in the UKEN Report that outlines the general process:
”The Riverside County Teachers of the Year are selected from nearly 20,000 educators in the county. The rigorous application process requires candidates to spend time reflecting on, and carefully defining, their teaching philosophy. The county teachers of the year are selected on the basis of nominations by teachers, principals, and school district administrators throughout the county.
Applications are then submitted to the Riverside County Office of Education, where an outside selection committee reviews the applications on each district candidate and selects semi-finalists. The selection committee then conducts interviews and on-site classroom visitations to select the final four candidates before the county superintendent announces the Riverside County Teachers of the Year. Having two of the four County Teachers of the Year from the same school district is a rare occurrence.”
My partner in life, and member of the IMPACT Advisory Council, Heather Ramirez also captured the morning her YouTube channel, HeatherJustCreate:
Last week, we surprised Tom with the news that had been selected as a 2020 Riverside County Teacher of the Year. See how it all unfolded!
On Friday May 17, IMPACT students, friends, teachers, and families came together for the first ever IMPACT Digital Media Festival. The night was a celebration of excellent student work created throughout the year as well as a farewell to the graduating Class of 2019.
Student films were showcased in three categories: Documentary, Experimental, and Animation, which included several premieres in each category!
In addition to film screenings, the first series of IMPACT Awards were given to deserving seniors who have continuously gone above and beyond for many years. These four awards will now be given each year to select students in future graduating classes. This year’s winners included:
Creator of the Year
Joe Sicairos
Creating a Legacy
Bexy Campos
Creative Vision Behind the Scenes
Miranda Hernandez
Work Hard, Be Kind, Have Fun Excellence in Creativity and Leadership
Renae Farias
The evening also included the inaugural awarding of the IMPACT Digital Media Scholarship in the amount of $1,000 to Renae Farias for his commitment not only to the pathway, but towards helping everyone he encounters work towards a better future. The scholarship will help Renae as he embarks on a career in the Arts, Media, and Entertainment Industry.
10 seniors from the Class of 2019 were awarded graduation cords for completing at least 6 semesters of the IMPACt pathway, maintaining a minimum 3.5 GPA in their CTE course, and completing at least 60 Community Service Hours and 20 Intern Hours.
The evening wrapped up with a special presentation from IMPACt senior Bexy Campos, who shared a special message along with a video montage that she had worked on in secret for many months.
Created by Bexy Campos for the Class of 2019 (thank you Bexy!)
Most importantly, the IMPACT Media Festival was a chance for all students in the pathway to come together as a family and share how that they’ve grown with each other over the years, in ways that extend far beyond technical skills or class projects.
25 students from the IMPACT, Engineering, and Network Systems pathways competed against students from all over California in the 52nd Annual SkillsUSA State Conference at the Ontario Convention Center from April 26-29. Students competed in 11 different contest areas, and earned medals in three:
Silver- Jorge Paredes, Creed
Bronze- Steven Martinez, Pin Design
Bronze- Cody Guenther, Information Technology Services
Regardless of whether or not they earned a medal, all students put in a tremendous amount of effort throughout the entire school year, and represented their CTE programs extremely well at the conference!
DSUSD Superintendent Scott Bailey spent two days under the spotlight of a reporter for an upcoming profile piece. Part of the profile included the unique project of Not So undercover Sup, the mockumentary series that follows Bailey in not-so-ingenious disguises as he explores different departments of the school district.
IMPACT students, in collaboration with Digicom Learning and the Superintendent, have produced the series since its inception. In addition to leading a tour of the IMPACT studio/lab, students were interviewed about their experience on the project and their plans after high school.
Episode 3 of Not So Undercover Sup: Security will premiere in May.
A short animated film created by IMPACT senior Ari Pimentel was selected to be featured in the 2019 California Student Media Festival, with a screening in Los Angeles on April 27th.
The festival is produced in partnership with PBS SoCal and CUE, to promote students creativity in different genres of digital filmmaking.
Ari’s film, The Ball Face, was animated over the course of several months using only an iPad as part of her original YouTube channel.
This is... The LONGEST FREAKING ANIMATION I'VE EVER DONE. Well for now.. *suspense* Enjoy my stupid story :P
IMPACT students receive a quick lesson on the importance of copyrights, and the differences between a copyright, patent, and trademark.
On March 28th, IHS hosted a session of the California Appellate Court, giving students a firsthand look into how their state’s high court system operates. The event was coordinated on campus by the IHS Law and Justice Pathway.
After the court’s session, Justices made their way to the IMPACT studio and lab where they toured facilities, spoke with students, and gave an impromptu lesson into the world of Copyright Law as it applies to digital media. Additionally, the Justices explained the variety of ways students’ digital media skills are needed in the court system, opening up many new options for career opportunities.
Finally, students had the opportunity to speak one-on-one with the justices, giving a unique, personalized perspective to specific questions, goals, and concerns.
The KIHS Rajah Report, streamed live every day!
the official impact youtube channel!
All course information and assignments are available through Google Classroom
