Monday, October 8, 2012

HSCC Testimonial: Nicholas Reid (New York, 2010)

There have been hundreds of High School Computer Competition (HSCC) teams over the last 25 years. One of my favorite teams competed in the 2010 national BDPA HSCC Championships held in Philadelphia was trained by BDPA New York chapter. They were a remarkable and diverse group of young men who competed well ... and who I think will set the world on fire as they move through college and careers. One of the young men on that team was Nicholas Reid. Nicholas shared his testimonial with us last month. Here is what he had to say:


My Name Is Nicholas Reid, I am 18 years old and currently a sophomore at Baruch College. Currently my major is Computer Science with a Minor in physics, however I will be transferring next year due to Baruch not having a major in physics, and I am going to be an astrophysicist. Currently this is my 5th year as a member of BDPA New York chapter - 4 years as an HSCC student and this year I came back as a Technical Coordinator.


During my years as an HSCC student, my role was Lead Programmer. My teammates and I were trained in various programming languages such as: PHP, SQL, Java, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and the most important Soft Skills which took me awhile to develop. I competed in 3 BDPA HSCC competitions 2 regional and 1 national, placing 3rd and 6th at the regional competitions consecutively and 6th place at the national level.

By the time I reached my 3rd Year in HSCC our Coordinator Ms. Denise Hamilton recommended my teammates and I for an internship with our sponsor UBS. This past summer I just completed my 3rd consecutive internship there. At UBS I met our internship sponsor and one of my mentors now Mrs. Denise Hebner. During The 1st year of the internship, it was exciting but, intimidating at the same time. I was a 16 year old kid working my first job alongside college and graduate students, I was doing the same tasks as they were so naturally, I was a little scared, however, I successfully completed the internship and was offered to come back year after year.


This year, I took on the role as the Technical Coordinator for BDPA-NY HSCC team. Alongside Ms. Tish Edwards, I was assigned the task of training the current HSCC students in web application development for the 2012 National HSCC Competition. This gave me a new perspective of HSCC from the point of our HSCC coordinators Ms. Hamilton and Mr. Destine. As a student our task was to learn and do our best in competing, as a coordinator I had to create a syllabus that would fit everything they need to know for the competition in only 4 months, use different teaching techniques to get through to each student, worrying about how they were doing while being sequestered for 8hrs, and being a role model for them to truly understand the benefits from a student standpoint of being a part of BDPA. From learning how to teach to guiding them at this year’s conference it was truly a rewarding experience. This year I will be getting back into the competitive nature of things and competing in IT Showcase.

My future goals with BDPA are to compete in IT Showcase and continue giving back to the foundation. I want to pass on many of the memorable and grand learning experiences I have had and will have in BDPA to the students I have now and the students that will come, also it would be nice to see BDPA-NY win 1st place for chapter of the year, IT Showcase and HSCC a goal which will hopefully be realized for 2013.

Nicholas Reid
September 2012

Do you begin to understand why BDPA members do what we do? I hope so ... more importantly I hope you will encourage Nicholas and others who seek to advance their careers in the IT industry from 'the classroom to the boardroom'. One way you can show your support is simple -- make a secure online donation to the BDPA New York HSCC Scholarship Fund!

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