Dos Pueblos Engineering Academy unveils its new 11,000-square-foot creative learning center

This wasn’t your ordinary ribbon-cutting ceremony. A laser cutter box crafted by Dos Pueblos Engineering Academy students sent a cloud of smoke into the air as it cut a blue ribbon — formally unveiling on Thursday the long-awaited Virgil Elings Center for Creative Learning. After nine years of construction and pooling together funding from the state, philanthropists and taxpayers, students in the prestigious engineering academy will now be able to work in an 11,000-square-foot design lab with specialized areas for product testing, quality evaluation and manufacturing equipped with “industry standard” facilities. It also doubles as a museum to show off their projects. “In the beginning, Dos Pueblos High School was designed to evolve, innovate and look towards the future,” said Dos Pueblos Principal Bill Woodard. “This project carries that forward.” Dos Pueblos Principal Bill Woodard says the new center carries Dos Pueblos legacy forward. (Photo by Julianna Lozada/Santa B