Message from Richmond Chapter President

Jackie Pryor is the president of our BDPA chapter in Richmond, VA. She shared her overview of the 29th annual BDPA Technology Conference held last week in Washington DC. Her comments were as follows:

"Good afternoon BDPA members and supporters.

I want to thank all of those that attended especially our High School Computer Competition (HSCC) team, Youth Technology Camp (YTC) students, trainers, and the HSCC committee. I want to also thanks the the Parents Groups, sponsors and everyone else that contributed with donations or supporting our fundraisers to get our students to the conference. It was a blessing that the conference was in DC this year. But don't get too comfortable. We will be working on 2008 soon and we will need your help again.

If you weren't able to make it, you missed a good one. I was only able to go up on Friday, but in the short amount of time I was there, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and so did my daughter, who is only 10 years old. For those adults that like to have a good time, Target can throw a party. Yes, I said Target (the store). They were one of the National BDPA sponsors.

BDPA Richmond Chapter took a team of 5 members (Ashley Ragsdale, Kalifah Bey, Jhosdyn Barragan, Amber Henderson and Brittany Thomas), two chaperones, a coordinator (Yiddy Chaves) and 11 YTC students to DC in 2007. The whole experience was great!"

The chapter's HSCC Coordinator, Yiddy Chaves, provided an analysis on the performance of the team. He noted,

"Our HSCC team placed 11th out of 48 chapters. Last year we were in 6th place. The 11th place does not represent all the hard work that was done. Students knew more than the previous year; however, the score was not better. There are some reasons that can explain that:

1. The level of the competition was raised, although we did about the same that we did in 2006, other teams did much better.


2. We practiced with problems from 2004 and 2006 competitions; the 2007 problem was very similar to the one in 2005. So, teams that practiced with this problem did better, and the 2007 winner team was the same team that won in 2005.


3. I would also like to add that the 2007 Richmond team had more technical knowledge than the one in 2006 Richmond team, but a couple of obstacles (problem statement and database layout) stopped them from showing what they were capable to do.

I think it is fair to say that everyone in and out of the Richmond chapter is proud of their students. It is hard to get a group of teenagers out of their bed every Saturday during the summer to learn how to write computer programs. Yet, the students in Richmond did just that. They demonstrated a level of dedication that is worthy of praise. Hopefully, their experiences with BDPA will help them get ahead further in life."

If you know any of the five students from Richmond ... ask them to visit the BETF blog and share their comments directly with us. I would love to have them send me their own personal testimonial and photo for us to place for posterity on our BETF website.

Let's go one step further ... if you want to make a donation to the restricted BDPA Richmond chapter fund ... please use the Click and Pledge link over on the right-hand side navigation bar or you can make the donation directly to BDPA Richmond chapter's scholarship fund.

BETF thanks both Jackie Pryor and Yiddy Chaves for their comments and more importantly for their leadership! Leave a comment for the Richmond students and chapter leaders in the comments section below if you have time/inclination!