Students, faculty, staff and parents gathered Wednesday morning for the unveiling of the student-designed logo for North Atlanta High‘s Global Broadcasting and Journalism academy. The academy is a part of North Atlanta and Grady High becoming the final two schools to convert to the newer, smaller-learning model as designed by Atlanta Public Schools’ High School Transformation Initiative.
As Academy Leader Laura Brazil explained in the video interview above, part of the reason to open the academy was due to the overflow of student enrollment that already had filled the other three academies (or “small learning communities”): the Center for the Arts, Center for Business and Marketing and Center for International Studies (home of the International Baccalaureate program). The students in the “GBJ,” as the new academy is called, are freshmen and sophomores whole will matriculate through the system while learning the latest innovations in journalism and broadcasting. (It was kind of cool to see one North Atlanta High parent, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and former Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Hank Klibanoff, in the audience!)
The students unveiled the new logo after a reception hosted in the Old Planeterium room (where students interviewed such guests as Atlanta Board of Education members on camera). The logo (below) was designed by Darius Peterson, whose work is well known around North Atlanta High and the community. (We’ll have lots more him later on; keep coming back to Talk Up APS for more info!) We’d also like to thank academy office assistant Amy Durham for the head’s up!