Year of Atlanta (YOA); Making History!
We kicked off the third quarter making history at the National BDPA Conference in Baltimore, MD. I am very honored and proud to announce the BDPA Atlanta High School Computer Competition (HSCC) Team won 1st Place in the 2012 national HSCC championship!
Our students made several historical moments with this win. In the 27 years of the competition, the first time
- Atlanta has won 1st place,
- a team received a perfect score on programming,
- a person has won 1st place as a student and a coordinator; Wesley Williams!
On behalf of the Student Program of BDPA Atlanta and the entire BDPA Atlanta chapter, I would like to thank everyone for their support because you helped to make this possible. Our sponsors and individual donors were instrumental in our students attending the national competition this year. The chapter looks forward to everyone’s continued support in the upcoming years.
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| Felicia Jones |
We continued making history by continuing to provide more webinars than any other chapter. In this quarter, we provided webinars on 3FE, Entrepreneurship, Software Engineering in Aerospace, The State of BDPA, and HSCC-Recap of 2012 National Conference. Attendees learned how to: Lock That Job with using the 3FE approach with Derrick Brown; Start and maintain an IT business and determining if entrepreneurship is really for them with Chiadi Obi; develop software in safety critical systems like an airplane with Alphonse Porter; The Atlanta Leadership Team also presented The State of BDPA, a mid-year year in review, openly discussing our roadmap, accomplishments, and failures; and the instructors, volunteers, parents and students of the HSCC team discussed their experiences at the 2012 National BDPA Conference. At our monthly program meeting in September, we continued to educate our members and future members on Big Data with Dr. Craig Brown leading an informative lecture and discussion on the trend of interacting with big data in the IT world.
Macy's Systems & Technology gave everyone an opportunity to wind down by sponsoring a Summer Mixer at Abbotts Old Towne Tavern & Grill. We had a great evening of networking. Our members and guests also had the opportunity to 'give back' through our community outreach event, by donating back-to-school supplies and providing canned food for The Bridge Builders & Norcross Co-op organizations. Our outreach in the community continued as we got “down and dirty" at Atlanta Community Food Bank’s community garden. The Food Bank supports a wide range of people in need, from children to the working poor. Food pantries,community kitchens, childcare centers, night shelters, and senior centers are among the agencies that receive products from the organization; and provide food and other critical resources for low-income Georgians who suffer from hunger and food insecurity.
Our final historical moment was when Next Level Technology Foundation hosted the inaugural Black IT Executive Forum as a fundraising event for BDPA - HSCC. The event was the first of its kind in Atlanta, focusing on senior African American IT professionals and their journey to their current roles. The panelists were Monique Berry (President, NBDPA), Michael Fisher (SVP, Ceridian), Derek Johnson (CIO, SED International), Curtis Rawlings (Interim CIO, DeKalb County), Darius Jackson Ryals (GVP, Wyndham Worldwide), Lee Scott (VP,Macy’s Systems & Technology) and moderated by Mike Williams (SVP. FIS & Director, BDPA South Region); they served as mentors and inspirations. The event raised $2,700; $1,400 for BDPA and $1,300 for HSCC.
I know I wrote in the paragraph above ‘final historical moment’, but if you don’t know anything about the Atlanta Leadership team, please know this: Nothing is EVER ‘final’ with us. Besides, we have another quarter to go ... YOA!
Felicia Jones, President
BDPA Atlanta Chapter
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