In many ways, web designing is an art in itself. The blank html page someone starts out with is like an empty canvas. What happens next showcases just how creative someone can be or sometimes the complete opposite is revealed.
At DMAE, there are a few individuals who have a thing or two for web design, and these students recently were given the opportunity to test their skills in web design at the New Jersey Institute of Technology’s (NJIT) Fifth Annual Web Design Competition held at NJIT in Newark, NJ, on March 20, 2013. The competition is part of the varied programs designed to bolster students who are interested in careers in Science, Technology, Engineering or Math, also known as S.T.E.M.
“It was a wonderful opportunity for the students to showcase the skills they have been learning in technology classes here at Dwight Morrow /Academies@Englewood,” explained Anthony Dinallo, who supervised the trip.
Competing with students from 43 other schools in New Jersey and New York, the six students from DMAE, including Joseph Dela Cruz, Ryan Ha, Jeen Park, Parth Shah and Yulissa Rojas, used programs like Adobe Photoshop and Dreamweaver to create both appealing and functional websites according to established design specifications. Students worked in small teams of three or four students, and they found the challenge exhilarating.
“We learned just how powerful teamwork can be and how we can work better under pressure,” sophomore Jeen Park exclaimed. “It was awesome!”
Mr. Dinallo believes that all-day competitions like this one will help create a better future for students.
“This type of competition will make better students,” Mr. Dinallo said. “It will help them pick better colleges when the time comes to apply, and also give them more useful credit when doing so.”
Creating websites can sometimes come with great difficulty. One mistake could easily cause collateral damage, a lesson one of DMAE’s teams almost experienced.
“We had troubles transferring pictures onto our websites. It was tedious work, and it took a lot out of us,” sophomore Joseph De La Cruz explained. “We were also up against another school, whose skills were on par, if not, superior to ours.”
But the drive to create something beautiful on a digital canvas paid off. Just before spring break, sophomores Jeen Park and Joseph De La Cruz received Certificates of Recognition from the NJ Web Design Competition at NJIT.
“It was a nice opportunity for students to showcase the different set of skills they learned,” Mr. Dinallo said. “It makes me proud to have seen it through and hopeful for greater success in the future.”
Before the competition officially began, students were given a tour of NJIT that some of them may be interested in applying to in the near future.