Originally Posted: 11/29/2007
BETF-Blog Readers, have you enjoyed reading the testimonials of young men and women who competed in our national high school computer competition over the past 20+ years? I think it is important for you to see the human faces behind our BETF fundraising efforts.
At the end of the day, BETF is measured by our success as a fundraising mechanism that provides these young people with increased educational opportunities that focus on information technology and with increased scholarships so that they can attend post-secondary colleges, universities or vocational-technical schools.
Some of you are long-time members of BDPA. Have you thought about what BDPA volunteers are doing each day around the country in our 45 chapters? If so, don't you think it is time for you to make a donation or to include us in your United Way or CFC payroll deductions?
Anyhow, we are blessed to have a young man who represented his city of Charlotte, NC in the 2001 national high school computer competition. His name is Bogdan Pomerlyan and here are his words:
At the end of the day, BETF is measured by our success as a fundraising mechanism that provides these young people with increased educational opportunities that focus on information technology and with increased scholarships so that they can attend post-secondary colleges, universities or vocational-technical schools.
Some of you are long-time members of BDPA. Have you thought about what BDPA volunteers are doing each day around the country in our 45 chapters? If so, don't you think it is time for you to make a donation or to include us in your United Way or CFC payroll deductions?
Anyhow, we are blessed to have a young man who represented his city of Charlotte, NC in the 2001 national high school computer competition. His name is Bogdan Pomerlyan and here are his words:
Early on in high school I spent most of my time learning the ins and outs of desktop publishing applications. I excelled in that and decided to expand into networking because our school was starting a new set of classes in that direction. I did well in networking and enjoyed it, but there was one more field that I wanted to try before graduating from high school. That was application and web programming. The problem was that my class load was already packed and I didn’t have the resources to learn the material at home. It wasn’t until a friend invited me to join him at a BDPA meeting and I started attending regularly that I was able to explore the programming world.
It was even better than taking a class on the subject though because we had real-world professionals that taught us. The environment was relaxed and you were able to learn at your own pace. We met in sophisticated "classrooms" that were owned by the companies we dreamed of one day working for which honestly made the whole experience very inspirational; then there was the National High School Computer Competition in Chicago. Although our chapter did not win, I will never forget and will always treasure the experience. Ultimately, BDPA exposed me to the field I later decided would be my starting career. For that I will always be grateful to those that sacrificed their time and money.
Bogdan is a success story. He is now a software developer at Wachovia Bank. It is not a coincidence that Wachovia, a strong BDPA corporate sponsor, made Bogdan a first-round draft pick in their information technology department!
BETF-Blog Readers, we need you to POST A COMMENT below to share some love with Bogdan and the other young HSCC alumni that you are meeting on this blog. Can you help us out?
2 comments:
Any Charlotte-area readers care to send some good vibes to Bogdan?
All - Anyone heard from Bogdan recently?
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