WCAAD Student Natalene Gunawan Admitted by UC Santa Cruz—Graphic Design

​Congratulations to Natalene Gunawan for her admittance to University of California, Santa Cruz--Graphic Design!

​Additional accepted schools:
 
California State University, Fullerton; California State University, San Francisco; University of California, Merced.

​Natalene Gunawan’s portfolio artwork

​Natalene Gunawan’s portfolio artwork

​Natalene has been at our Academy for a long time growing up here with enthusiasm for the arts. Along with her older sister Magdalene, she has taken classes for 12 years. She has great admiration from her peers and has grounded herself following her sister who applied in the art as well. 

She has shown great talent, commitment, and discipline for the craft. Always eager, she has experienced various classes in Animation, Photoshop, Blender, Life Drawing and Creative Drawing among the various options here.

​Natalene Gunawan’s portfolio artwork

Natalene Gunawan’s portfolio artwork

​At a certain stage, her desire was that she partake in diverse perspectives surrounded by cultural landscapes that can guide her to her future and ultimate goal while enhancing her skills and perception. 

​Natalene Gunawan’s portfolio artwork

​Natalene Gunawan’s portfolio artwork

​One of the many achievements in Natalene’s journey, was the fact that she won many competitions as well as in school projects that we have assisted her with. She has taken steps to use resources ideal for her exploration and give her various experiences. I can attest that Natalene is driven, thorough and proactive in our community. Her design work is always executed with the greatest care, and she was never satisfied until her project’s goals were met giving quality and insurance. As you can see from her portfolio, she really cares about prosses and sound designs.

​Natalene Gunawan’s portfolio artwork

​Natalene Gunawan’s portfolio artwork

​Natalene was most passionate about her Robotics team. She was the school’s first female driver on the drive team and is proud to be nominated for the First Dean’s list semifinalist award. It is an award that recognizes people from each team, who embodied leadership and FIRST (the organization) values. Natalene was able to compete against other teams in the LA region and was able to be recognized as a Dean’s List Finalist! Of the 10 years of this team’s existence, this was the first award to ever be won by the team. Her passions and love for this team paid off and was an amazing accomplishment she never knew she could reach at the time. Her leadership for “Team Sprocket” has been promoting a health, equality environment as team captain3474, while increase efficiency to finish jobs quicker and technological imaginative programming. She has shown reliability as she now trains younger students. One of the recent projects I worked with Natalene was to design an apparel for her team. 

​Natalene Gunawan’s portfolio artwork

​Natalene Gunawan’s portfolio artwork

​Her goal was to promote STEM education and awareness. This awareness of her interest helped us cater projects for our students. She was able to create a robotics project and design a fire fighter suit with current events.

​Natalene Gunawan’s portfolio artwork

​Natalene Gunawan’s portfolio artwork

​Other activities include volunteering for the Red Cross, Youth& Gov. as their publicist. She was part of Project Pulsera and Art and Society. Outside school she is helping her parent’s company (Directwells) as a graphic/website designer and shipment manager. I truly believe is a well-rounded individual eager to make an impact. 

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​(By Omar Gallegos, WCAAD Vice Principal/Director of Education)