Message From BDPA Atlanta Chapter President

Happy Holidays from BDPA Atlanta Chapter

2012 Year in Review

Felicia Jones

As 2012 winds down, it’s time to sit back and reflect upon the great and many accomplishments of the BDPA Atlanta Chapter. Our primary focus for 2012 was ‘Building and Growing a Stronger BDPA’. The leadership team placed a very strong emphasis on providing career enhancing programs to our members and the community. We were committed to developing them with technical skills, business-savvy, and personal growth. In this one year timeframe, we

• Hosted our 3rd Annual Career Fair – The event offered resume makeovers, mock interviews, one on one career coaching and a Critical Success workshop.
• Created 4 new programs:
1. Tech Talk Webinar Series – Bi-monthly webinar series which were informational and educational. The webinars were on the latest IT trends, topics and what’s affecting the IT community.
2. Success Alliance - A professional development support program which helped the individual to define and set their career, business or academic goals
3. College Liaison Program (CLP) - We expanded our mentoring programs to the college level. Through a partnership with DeVry University, our CLP mentored computer science students for future success.
4. Learn by Doing (LBD) - Learning and gaining valuable IT experience by volunteering and participating on a live technical project.
• Provided 6 timely and meaningful presentations on the latest IT topics and trends.
• Provided 16 webinars; topics varied from technical to professional development to career advice and selling IT.
• Hosted the First Annual Black IT Executive Forum - The event focused on senior African American IT professionals (CIOs, Senior VPs, and Group VPs) who served as mentors and inspirations.

We launched our 2012 Student Information Technology Education & Scholarship (SITES) / High School Computer Competition (HSCC) program in January. We trained 15 high school students in HTML, SQL, CSS, MySQL, PHP, Eclipse IDE, project management, oral presentation skills, and teamwork. This year, our students were not only the South Regional Champions, but also, for the first time in 27 years of the HSCC competition, the National Champions! Our students also made history by becoming the first team ever to receive a perfect programming score.

We gave back to the community through various community outreach events and programs. We volunteered at the Norcross Community Co-op Food Bank where we stocked shelves and racks with donated food, clothing and household supplies. We held a back-to-school supplies and canned food drive for The Bridge Builders & Norcross Co-op organizations. Our outreach in the community continued when we got “down and dirty" at the Atlanta Community Food Bank’s community garden and just two weeks ago, we partnered with the North Fulton Community Charities to adopt a family of four for the holidays.

With the generosity and support of sponsors, BDPA members and the community, we were able to uphold our focus of ‘Building and Growing a Stronger BDPA’ in the Atlanta area and we are counting on your support, AGAIN, in 2013!

Wishing You and Your Family a Happy and Safe Holiday!

Felicia Jones, president
BDPA Atlanta Chapter