08 Aug 2019

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in August 2019 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness. 

Blue Ocean is honored to have recently participated in a community partnership with the Baltimore Design School. Together with our amazing residents and team members, we were able to provide school supplies to students for the 2019-2020 school year.

Throughout August, in preparation for the event, our team hosted school supply drives within our residential communities. Then, on September 19th, we were able to donate an array of new supplies gathered from Blue Ocean team members and our residents at Baltimore Design School’s Back-to-School event.

Special thanks to our team for designing and producing nearly 600 USB drives that will be donated to high school students over the next few years. And, to further support the great work Baltimore Design School is doing with students in our community, Blue Ocean made a generous donation to help the School in pushing its vision forward.

“The BDS community is extremely grateful for the support of Blue Ocean. Since our first interaction with their staff during a “60 Minutes with BDS” tour, they have been eager to figure out how they could partner with us to better serve our students. This was our first ever back to school drive, and thanks to donations and support from Blue Ocean and its partners, the drive was a HUGE success. We were able to ensure that both our middle and high school students receive the necessary supplies they need to jump-start an amazing school year!”

As residents of Baltimore ourselves, we have a firsthand appreciation for what makes our city so wonderful – we could not be more grateful to lend a hand to this local school! Before the event, we were able to get a tour of the entire building and meet a few of the amazing teachers who play a huge role in what makes this School so great. During the Back-to-School event, some of our team members helped serve food, while others helped directly with the school supply drive. All in all, it was a lovely day!

About The Baltimore Design School

The Baltimore Design School is a Baltimore City public school that offers a comprehensive college preparatory program that integrates design throughout the academic curriculum and provides Career and Technology Education (CTE) pathways. Presently, BDS serves approximately 245 middle school students and 278 high school students (523 students in total). The projected enrollment for 2020 is 575 students, with approximately 81 students per grade level.

The School fosters creativity and develops the academic and critical thinking skills of 6th through 12th grade students and prepares them for admission to college and careers in the design fields of Architecture, Fashion, and Graphic Design. The Baltimore Design School is a certified Career and Technology Education school. In a CTE pathway, students take rigorous academic courses and participate in work-based learning opportunities, including job shadowing, mentoring with industry professionals, and internships. After successful completion of a CTE program, students can graduate with industry certification and/or college credit.