Originally Posted: 12/18/2008I have been a member of BDPA for over 20 years. One of my proudest BDPA accomplishments was working with others to revive BDPA Cincinnati chapter in 1999. BDPA Cincinnati chapter went on to train hundreds of students in web development, presentation skills, project management skills and computer programming over the next decade.
One of those students is a remarkable young brother, Ramala Andemariam. Ramala participated in the BDPA Student IT Education & Scholarship (SITES) program in 2003-2005. Ramala is currently a senior at the University of Cincinnati. He is very active with the Ethiopian Student Association.
Ramala shared his thoughts about BDPA when he was 16-years old. He recently updated his testimonial:
I remember when I first started BDPA. I was in 10th grade and I got some information from my web design teacher about BDPA. I've been interested in making websites for a while and I was also learning it on my own so this was a great opportunity for me to find out what this organization offered. I talked to my father about it and went to the testing with him. There I saw many others that have come to do the same. After being accepted into the first phase, I was excited to learn what they offered. Ultimately, I ended up going all the way through to being on the competition team. It was the most exciting thing I've done at that time. I love to compete and BDPA gave me the perfect setting to do just that.
Throughout my BDPA journey, there were a lot of opportunities for me to learn and experience new things. The Saturday sessions we had were the most educational for me, specially during the first year. I always looked forward to every Saturday with BDPA. Being able to learn new things, work with other people that had the same interest, and meet new people were among the many things I experienced with BDPA. Going to different cities and competing was also one of the highlights of the program. I loved those Fridays that we spent locked in the competition room coming up with ways to solve our competition problem with limited time. I loved the time we spent playing pranks on one another that Saturday night before our departure. There were many experiences that helped me grow as a person while in BDPA.
My initial interest in technology was what guided me to join BDPA. Once in BDPA, I learned a lot of things that helped me succeed in college. Being an IT major, there was a lot of knowledge that transfered directly to my daily school work from those BDPA classes. It is by far the best educational and fun experience I've had to date. I recommend it to everyone that has the chance to join. BDPA is the best family you can have outside of your current one. I regret not knowing about BDPA earlier but it will always have a special place in my life. Thank you for those that took their time out to educate me and influence me in a great way. Thank you BDPA!
Ramala Andemariam
Member, BDPA Cincinnati Chapter
Student, University of Cincinnati (Class of 2010)
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