FAQ – WANIC Programs

In partnership with Washington Network for Innovative Careers (WANIC), the DigiPen WANIC program offers high school students the opportunity to take advanced classes in computer science, art and animation, music and sound, and game design.

WANIC Full Year registration opens in February. Students can register and view the details of the application process at Full Year Courses – WANIC High School.

Students apply through the WANIC website. Students applying for their first year in a DigiPen Academy Program will need to attend an Info Session. RSVP to attend an Info Session.

• Art & Animation (2-year program) 
• Data Analytics & Visualization (1-year program) – canceled for 2024-25
• Game Design (1-year program)
• Video Game Programming (2-year program) 
• Music & Sound Design (2-year program) 

Info Sessions are held once a month starting in January and ending in August. These sessions are online and last for an hour. For a full list of Info Session dates, please see the WANIC Programs page or RSVP to attend an Info Session.

The Info Session allows students to learn more about how the programs are run with a competency-based approach. This approach and our expectations for homework may be different than student’s home high schools, so we have found the Info Sessions to be beneficial for students and their families to understand the philosophy behind our approach.

The WANIC office handles all DigiPen WANIC applications. Please contact the WANIC office at wanic@lwsd.org for any questions or concerns regarding your application status.

• Data Analytics & Visualization requires Algebra 2 – canceled for 2024-25
• Video Game Programming requires Algebra 2
• Art & Animation, Game Design, and Music & Sound Design do not have prerequisites

• 11^th or 12^th grade students who are registered in a public school within the WANIC Consortium. The WANIC Consortium includes seven local school districts: Bellevue, Issaquah, Lake Washington, Mercer Island, Northshore, Riverview, and Snoqualmie Valley.
• Home-schooled and private school students who are registered with their local WANIC Consortium school district and who have not earned a high school diploma.

Families do not pay anything to take part in WANIC. The WANIC program is paid for by the state as outlined by the rules declared in the 2007-2008 Enrollment Reporting Handbook, Page 17-18 2.  

Out-of-consortium high school students may be eligible on a space available basis with a signed shared student agreement. Contact the WANIC office at wanic@lwsd.org for more information.

With some exceptions, 10^th grade students can enroll for the full year DigiPen WANIC Program. All students must be cleared by their sending high school’s counselor to attend WANIC. Counselors ensure that the student is on track to graduate given their class schedule; as a sophomore, students are less likely to be cleared by their counselor. Please contact your school counselor to discuss scheduling/planning for WANIC. Freshmen are not eligible for the full year DigiPen WANIC Program.

All rising high school students, who will be in 9^th-12^th grade in the fall, are eligible to enroll for DigiPen WANIC Summer. DigiPen WANIC Summer is a three-week long program that takes place at the beginning of the summer semester between the end of June and first half of July.

Students may do part-time Running Start at the same time as WANIC but please understand that we cannot allow Running Start classes to conflict with WANIC classes at any time during the school year. Sometimes, it is challenging to find a Running Start schedule that does not conflict with WANIC, especially since the Running Starts schedules typically only become available at the beginning of each quarter. The class times for DigiPen WANIC are the same every day, for the full school year.

WANIC Full Year is a school-year-long program that runs alongside the student’s high school classes. WANIC follows the Lake Washington School District Calendar. 

DigiPen WANIC programs are run in the morning or afternoon. See schedule on WANIC website.

All DigiPen WANIC classes are held in person at DigiPen’s Redmond Campus. Students are expected to be in class each day.

In their DigiPen WANIC classes, students are able to study under professionals in the field while having access to resources that might not be available at home high schools for space, safety, or monetary reasons. Taking this into account, classes at home high schools are great if a student wants to see if they have a general interest for something while WANIC is a better fit for students that want to see if this is something they truly want to pursue.

DigiPen WANIC’s curriculum is designed for students to be able to complete all coursework and assignments in class. There is no assigned homework. 

Students are responsible for providing their own transportation.

Computers and additional supplies and equipment will be available to students in the classroom.

Our goal with our competency-based approach is to provide students with a solid foundation that they can build off of later in our programs or in college. Rather than provide grades and label things as “good” or “bad” and then move on, our aim is to ensure that every student can produce high-quality work in essential areas. Thus, we have a list of core competencies that every student must show proficiency in to pass the class.

For the 2024-2025 school year, WANIC students can earn DigiPen Institute of Technology college credit for Art & Animation Year 1, Music & Sound Design Year 1 and 2, Game Design Year 1, and Video Game Programming Year 1 and 2. Whether these credits can be transferred to a college other than DIT depends on the college that students are hoping to transfer the credits to.

If you have earned DigiPen college credit through your Skill Center program and would like to request your transcript, please fill out the Transcript Request Form for Skills Center Students and send it to wanic@digpen.edu.

For high school transcripts, email WANIC at wanic@lwsd.org.