The 2018-19 school year has officially begun. Just as the hallways quiet, and students settle into their morning classes, the Baltimore Design School gets an annual visit from Mayor Catherine Pugh.

It’s the first day of school and you can expect the normal buzz at BDS. Students and parents picking up schedules, sixth graders (and some ninth graders) bright eyed as they embark on a new journey, excited staff and board members welcoming students back to school.

You hear the bell and then students and teachers clammer to get to class. The 2018-19 school year has officially begun. Just as the hallways quiet, and students settle into their morning classes, the Baltimore Design School gets an annual visit from Mayor Catherine Pugh.

Every year, Mayor Pugh visits several schools around the city, greeting students and staff as they gear up for a new year. However, BDS is always a special stop for Mayor Pugh. She, alongside a few other visionary leaders, founded the Baltimore Design School to prepare students for careers in the design fields. She stops into the pathway classrooms, and shares with students her original vision and inspiration for BDS. Students look on excitedly as Mayor Pugh talks. Many of the students are inspired by her leadership and are thrilled she has stopped by to see them. The tour commences after Mayor Pugh has made her way around to a few of the classes, and said hello to some of our original teachers. They still hold a special place with her. After she leaves the building, the program returns to normal…until the next time she pops in to see the students and staff at the Baltimore Design School.

Here’s a little history about BDS.

For nearly a decade, Mayor Catherine Pugh, then Maryland State Senator, envisioned a high school in Baltimore where students could learn fashion design. Working with MICA President Fred Lazarus, Baltimore architect Steve Ziger, and others who shared her vision, the concept evolved into a new middle and high school focused on Fashion Design, Architectural Design, and Graphic Design. When the proposal for the Baltimore Design School was approved by the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners, the BDS Board was expanded to include a range of community leaders, and the school opened with sixth and seventh grades in the fall of 2011.

Although giving students the tools they would need to be tomorrow’s architects and designers was paramount, the mission of the school was to help students think like designers. Evidence over the past 20 years shows that the amount of creativity in high school graduates has steadily dropped. BDS not only teaches basic art and communication skills, but it engages students in how to solve problems, look at solutions, and think critically. This “design thinking” is applicable across disciplines and will serve our students well in whatever field they choose upon graduation. Design thinking is empowering at all levels.