Every year, students of Early College High School (ECHS) are required to build a Digital Portfolio of their best projects from each class, each year. Every year, I try to go above and beyond on this project. This year, I have reused last year's layout for it's simplicity and finished quality. Most projects have their own page, including descriptions, reflections, and standards. I have, on most pages, also included a media or gallery portion where you can read the essay associated with the project, look at photos of the project, or watch the presentation associated with the project. From any page, you can share and discuss the project. (Shortly, I will add a comment system, if I remember to. And have the time to.) From the home page, you can track the site's development from the Facebook feed, or check out a brief summary of my most recent blog entries.

To detail all I have learned doing this project would take books. I have written in five different computer languages (HTML, Smarty, CSS, PHP, and JS), edited dozens of images, used functions I never knew existed in programs I use every day, and built a website to rival the work of professionals. Extensive past history in web design has certainly helped me, and it will continue to help me, in to next year's portfolio, where I plan to surpass even what I have built this year. Each year's experience only helps to build up to further the next year's presentation. Hopefully, any graphic or media requirements can be fulfilled just by looking around. There are dozens of hours of graphic and web design everywhere one might look on this website. s

After May 1, College Selction Day, everybody knew where they would be attending college in the fall. For my part, I would be joining the University of California at Berkeley Class of 2015 in the fall following my graduation. This project was a sort of celebratory/declaratory/just-for-fun-because-we-can thing. We decorated a paper t-shirt with colors, text, and graphics appropriate and relevant to the college we would be attending. I wnent for elegance in simplicity, drawing a standard font-faced t-shirt with CAL across the chest in Berkeley's classic colors.

In the fall before college application season closed, we designed a pennant to represent the college we wanted to attend the most at the time. I selected the Massachusetts Institute of Technology because I wished to attend that college at the time to study aerospace engineering. While I did not wind up attending MIT, I had plenty of fun creating this pennant. I used a trick I had learned from the back of the Crayola box years ago, layering black crayon over a layer of color, then scraping away the black to reveal the colors below. The effect was slightly diminished by my less than stellar workmanship, but it still looked great.

One of the last things we did this year was to write a letter to the juniors that would join AVID 12 next year. We aimed to inspire, promote confidence, warn, and prepare the juniors for the wild experience that would be senior year. It was amazing to see the difference in perspective that was experienced as a senior leaving high school versus a junior entering their last year of high school. I felt that as seniors, we had a responsibility to inform the junior class what to expect, and our letters did an excellent job of that.

I have attached my letter to the juniors in this link if anybody wishes to read it though, but if you're a junior for the Class of 2012, NO LOOKING!