Digital Safari Academy
The Digital Safari Academy (DSA) was founded in the autumn of 1996 on a U.S. Department of Education grant to integrate vocational education with the core academic curriculum. The goal was to do this with professional multimedia design tools. Instead of using educational software, they would attempt to make it. Thus, as students who studied earth science, they would create interactive programs about the universe or geology. As they studied English they would create interactive book reports or websites about their favorite poets. As they studied social science, they would develop websites for model e-businesses or a CD-ROM about World War II.
Since 1997, the Digital Safari Academy has won two awards in the California Student Media Festival. In the spring of 2001, the academy produced a seven-day webcast of the International Science and Engineering Fair. The Digital Safari Academy, from 2007 through today, offers design services to businesses, non-profits, and other community organizations, through an annual internship program. The DSA's project design methodology has been adapted by numerous programs around the country. A majority of DSA graduates have chosen to continue their education beyond high school, choosing state and community colleges, graphic arts schools, or technical schools. The number of graduates in the multimedia and technical industries is growing, as more former students finish their career training.
In 2013 the Digital Safari Academy expanded its course offerings even further to serve a larger student population: freshmen now participate in an Art and Design course that articulates for possible community college credit, and the original 10th-12th grade Multimedia pathway now runs parallel to a new Interactive Design pathway, which focuses on web design, game design, and software application development.
Contra Costa County is a county located in the U.S. state of California, in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 1,165,927. The county seat is Martinez. It occupies the northern portion of the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area and is primarily suburban. The county's name refers to its position on the other side of the bay from San Francisco. Contra Costa County is included in the San Francisco–Oakland–Berkeley, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Clayton is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States. The population was 11,585 as of the 2020 census.
Concord is the most populous city in Contra Costa County, California, United States. According to an estimate completed by the United States Census Bureau, the city had a population of 129,295 in 2019, making it the eighth most populous city in the San Francisco Bay Area. Founded in 1869 as Todos Santos by Don Salvio Pacheco II, a noted Californio ranchero, the name was later changed to Concord. The city is a major regional suburban East Bay center within the San Francisco Bay Area, and is 29 miles east of San Francisco.
Walnut Creek is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, about 16 miles east of the city of Oakland. Walnut Creek has a total population of 70,127 per the 2020 census, is located at the junction of the highways from Sacramento and San Jose (I-680) and San Francisco/Oakland (SR-24), and is accessible by BART. The city shares its borders with Clayton, Lafayette, Alamo, Pleasant Hill, and Concord.
Mount Diablo is a mountain of the Diablo Range, in Contra Costa County of the eastern San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California. It is south of Clayton and northeast of Danville. It is an isolated upthrust peak of 3,849 feet, visible from most of the San Francisco Bay Area. Mount Diablo appears from many angles to be a double pyramid and has many subsidiary peaks. The largest and closest is North Peak, the other half of the double pyramid, which is nearly as high in elevation at 3,557 feet (1,084 m), and is about one mile northeast of the main summit.
Los Medanos College (LMC) is a public community college in Pittsburg, California. Established in 1974, LMC has an extension in Brentwood and is part of the Contra Costa Community College District.
Ygnacio Valley High School (YVHS) is a public secondary school located in Concord, California, United States. It draws students from Concord as well as from the neighboring communities of Walnut Creek and Pleasant Hill. The school opened in 1962, and its first senior class graduated in 1964. Originally conceived as a temporary facility, the school currently carries an enrollment of over 1,500 total students for grades 9 through 12. When the nearby Northgate High School opened in 1974, YVHS lost approximately half its student body at the time. The school is part of the Mount Diablo Unified School District.
Eriogonum truncatum, the Mount Diablo buckwheat, is a small pink wildflower, believed to have been extinct since 1936 until its rediscovery in 2005. The species is only known to live on Mount Diablo in Contra Costa County, northern California.
Clayton Valley Charter High School (CVCHS) is a comprehensive charter high school located in Concord, California, United States, just under two miles from Clayton. Most of the school's students live in Clayton and the nearby Concord neighborhoods.
John Muir Health is a hospital network headquartered in Walnut Creek, California and serving Contra Costa County, California and surrounding communities. It was formed in 1997 from the merger of John Muir Medical Center and Mount Diablo Medical Center.
Concord High School is a 9–12 comprehensive public high school in Concord, California, United States. It is one of the six high schools in the Mount Diablo Unified School District. Concord High School was constructed in 1966 and currently provides 144,373 square feet (13,412.7 m2) in permanent structure, including about 70 classrooms, a library, and other structures. As of 2023, the current principal is Julene MacKinnon.
Mount Diablo Unified School District (MDUSD) is a public school district in Contra Costa County, California. It currently operates 29 elementary schools, 9 middle schools, and 5 high schools, with 7 alternative school programs and an adult education program. MDUSD is one of the largest school districts in the state of California, with over 56 school sites and a budget of approximately $270,000,000. The district has over 36,000 K-12 students, over 20,000 adult education students, and over 3,500 employees, including over 2,000 certificated educators. The district covers 150 square miles (390 km2), including the cities of Concord and Clayton; as well as most of Pleasant Hill and portions of Walnut Creek, Pittsburg, Lafayette, and Martinez; and unincorporated areas, including Pacheco, Clyde, and Bay Point.
National Academy Foundation School is a public secondary school located in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It is based on the National Academy Foundation educational design to have "small learning communities."
Pinole Valley High School is a high school in Pinole, California, United States, in Contra Costa County. First opened in 1967, the school is part of the West Contra Costa Unified School District. Pinole Valley High serves grades 9–12, and has approximately 1,200 students from Pinole, northwest Richmond and the unincorporated communities of Bayview, Montalvin Manor and Tara Hills. The school is noted for its girls' basketball team. Coach Dan O'Shea was named "Coach of the Year" in May 2006 by the Oakland Tribune.
Northgate High School (NHS) is a public high school located in the suburban Northgate neighborhood of Walnut Creek, California, United States. The most recent of five high schools in the Mount Diablo Unified School District, the school was built in 1974, and is home to approximately 1,500 students from Walnut Creek and Concord, California, grades 9–12. Its name derives from its location at the north entrance of Mount Diablo State Park.
Orval Richard Steffen was an American college and high school football coach. He was the sixth head football coach at Adams State College—now known as Adams State University—in Alamosa, Colorado from 1950 until 1951. He played college football for Colorado A&M and professionally for the Oakland Giants of the Pacific Coast Professional Football League (PCPFL) as a guard. He was the head football coach for Alamosa High School from 1947 to 1949, Lincoln High School from 1952 to 1953, and Mount Diablo High School from 1954 to 1955. He also served for four years in the United States Navy as a chief petty officer.
KVHS is a non-profit high school radio station playing an active rock music format. It is licensed to the Mt. Diablo Unified School District and broadcasts from the campus of Clayton Valley Charter High School, Concord, California. The signal reaches the counties of Contra Costa, Solano, Napa, San Joaquin, West Sacramento and Yolo, and KVHS primarily serves the Diablo Valley area.
Daniel Mametta Colchico was an American athlete who played defensive end in the National Football League (NFL).
The Mount Diablo Thrust Fault, also known as the Mount Diablo Blind Thrust, is a thrust fault in the vicinity of Mount Diablo in Contra Costa County, California. The fault lies between the Calaveras Fault, the Greenville Fault, and the Concord Fault, all right-lateral strike-slip faults, and appears to transfer movement from the Calaveras and Greenville Faults to the Concord Fault, while continuing to uplift Mount Diablo.
Mount Diablo Creek is a 14.3-mile-long (23.0 km) northwest-flowing stream originating on the north flank of Mount Diablo. Its dozen small tributaries gather near Clayton before flowing through Concord and the Concord Naval Weapons Station, ultimately ending in tidelands on the southern shore of Suisun Bay in Contra Costa County. If the Concord Naval Weapons Station is converted to protected wildlands, Mount Diablo Creek may serve as the last wildlife corridor for black-tailed deer, tule elk, and other mammals from Mount Diablo to Suisun Bay.
