High School Computer Competition (Chicago, 2014)

BDPA Chicago, founded March 1986, is the reigning BDPA Chapter of the Year. Our Chicago chapter has won that prestigious award four times (1992, 2000, 2005 and 2013). However, the proudest accomplishment of the chapter may be the two times - 1994 and 2006 - that they took home the gold medal for the national BDPA High School Computer Competition (HSCC). BDPA Chicago is one of only two chapters to outperform BDPA Southern Minnesota chapter over the past ten years in the national HSCC championship. The chapter's HSCC coordinator shared his insights on that 2006 championship effort with our blog a few years ago.

Hundreds of young men and women have been impacted by the Student Information Technology Education & Scholarship (SITES) program in Chicago. Some of these students shared their thoughts about BDPA in this video clip:



We are pleased to report on the progress of the students featured in this video:

• Courtney Elzy scheduled to graduate next year from Illinois State University.
• Joseph Huggins, Jr. graduated from the US Naval Academy. He now serves our nation as a midshipman for the US Navy.
• We are unsure about the current whereabouts of Kenneth McCune. Do you know where he matriculated for college and such?
• Carlton Means attended Hampton University. He is now working at Adventist Midwest Health.
• Lee Reed graduated with honors from the University of Michigan. He now works for BDPA sponsor Deloitte.

There are new students competing for the right to represent the chapter at the 2014 HSCC championship in Indianapolis. The national team for Chicago will be selected from among the students shown in the photo shown below.

Back Row: Malcolm Range, Tyrese Cook, Raymond Adams, DeVaughn Welch
Middle Row: Cassie Bey, Christian Cherry, Paige Davis
Front Row: Matthew Davis, Marcus

BDPA Chicago Chapter’s SITES program teaches students in 6th through 12th grade to create web applications with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, MySQL, Ajax and PHP using components of the agile development methodology. Students that are ineligible to compete learn how to create android mobile applications. In addition to technical topics, the students are coached in effective study habits, presentation skills, professionalism and leadership. The top five students based on participation points, homework, and test scores will participate in the national competition.

These BDPA students are encouraged to pursue post-secondary education, be the best that they can be and encourage others to do the same. We need support from our blog's readers to raise funds to provide college scholarships for BDPA Chicago students. Won't you help us by making a secure online donation?

Related articles

• Overview: BDPA High School Computer Competition

Wordless Wednesday: 2006 National BDPA HSCC Silver Medalists (Southern Minnesota)

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Related articles

• Rochester Post-Bulletin, 10/1/2013 (BDPA Southern Minnesota)
• KTTC Rochester, 9/9/2013 (Herchran Singh, BDPA Southern Minnesota)

Route 66: The Road to the 2006 National BDPA HSCC Championship

Gibran McDuffie is the coordinator of the Student Information Technology Education & Scholarship (SITES) program conducted each year by BDPA Chicago chapter. One of the components of the SITES program is the annual High School Computer Competition (HSCC).

There have been 26 HSCC championships held in the United States since the first one took place back in 1986. In recent years the HSCC championships have been dominated by the BDPA chapter in Rochester, MN.

2006 HSCC Champions (Chicago)

However, there is one team that has beaten BDPA Southern Minnesota over the past seven years. BDPA Chicago's HSCC team won the national championship in 2006.

Gibran takes the time to share the story of that 2006 National BDPA HSCC Championship team. The story is compelling ... and it offers some outstanding 'lessons learned' for the other 45 BDPA chapters to consider as they begin planning for the 2012 HSCC championships.

Take a moment to download or read online Gibran's reflections on that 2006 championship team:

Road to National BDPA HSCC Championship

View more documents from BDPA Foundation.

I would be very interested in your thoughts on Gibran's article. What say u?

Bemley Scholar Caroline Tremain Heads to University of Minnesota

BDPA Education and Technology Foundation (BETF) has given out over $318,000 in scholarships to more than 150 students since 1999. One of those talented scholarship students is Caroline Tremain. She was a member of the 2006 high school computer competition (HSCC) team trained by BDPA Southern Minnesota chapter. Her team took home the silver medal in the 2006 national HSCC championships held in Los Angeles CA. As a result, Carly earned a Jesse Bemley Scholarship.

Carly decided to use her Bemley Scholarship to help defray the costs of attending the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities). She shares her thoughts on the decision with us:

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My name is Caroline Tremain. I graduated Mayo High School in Rochester, MN and anxiously await the start of my college studies at the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities where I will pursue an area of business at the Carlson School of Management.

As I was going through high school I had different aspirations for my future. I first thought I wanted to become a lawyer. I was an active member on the debate team and believed that it would be an interesting career that I would be good at. In my senior year I did a mentorship with a local judge. I sat in his courtroom every Tuesday morning for three hours. After listening to many cases and watching the same people appear again and again for committing the same crime, I decided I did not want to be a lawyer, at least not a public defender. I like a sense of completion with my work and to me it seemed like lawyers never really complete their jobs, unless the case ends. They only chip away at parts of a case for months or even years. That would drive me crazy.

I once thought that I wanted to be an obstetrician. A close family friend of mine is an obstetrician and always talks about the beautiful baby girls and boys that she helps bring into the world everyday. However after I saw the birthing video in my sophomore year health class I quickly decided that I needed to find another profession. The health industry as a doctor or nurse was not for me. Blood and fluids need to remain inside the body for my job.

In addition to my mentorship senior year I was also the student director for the school musical. That fall we put on the show Annie. I realized that I have natural leadership skills and I can work proficiently at getting major tasks done with a group of people. I really enjoyed this because it kept me involved and in control of most of the aspects of the play. I am not sure what job I will end up doing but I concluded that a business degree could get me a job that I would enjoy and thrive at.

I started looking at schools that had good business programs that were close to home. I wanted to get out of Rochester but I didn’t want to go to far away. I found the University of Minnesota and St. Thomas University. After being accepted into both schools I had to make the decision between a small or a large school. I visited both and felt more comfortable at the University of Minnesota.

I am currently undecided on my major but I think it might lean towards marketing. My dad was a marketing manager for twenty-seven years and I think some of his job skills rubbed off on me a little. I understand it pretty well, but I know that there is still so much more to learn. I am very excited to start this fall and begin my future.

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I hope that you will take a moment to use the POST A COMMENT option to share some BDPA-Love with Caroline! It is important that BDPA continue to support our HSCC alumni in the years after they participate in the national HSCC championships.

Good luck in your future Carly!

2006 National BDPA Technology Conference (Video)

The BDPA Foundation YouTube account now has 17 videos including these from the 2006 National BDPA Technology Conference was held in Los Angeles CA. This 3-part video runs for a total of 23 minutes. The video produced by video produced by Kevin Jones (Visual Propaganda) and divided into three parts by Jeff Walt (Jeff Walt Designs)


2006 BDPA Conference (1 of 3)


2006 BDPA Conference (2 of 3)



2006 BDPA Conference (3 of 3)


Do you have any memories of the 2006 BDPA conference held in Los Angeles that you can share with us?

2006 National BDPA High School Computer Competition (HSCC) Rankings

The National BDPA HSCC championships were held in Los Angeles CA in 2006. The west coast venue proved to be too costly for some teams to attend. As a result, the level of participation dipped down to 19 teams. Nevertheless, the battle for supremacy amongst the high school students was intense.

The HSCC team trained by BDPA Southern Minnesota tried valiantly to defend the national championship won the year before. However, this was the year for the HSCC team trained by BDPA Chicago chapter to finally break through for the gold medal. It was a remarkable effort by four truly remarkable young people (Joseph Huggins, Lee Reed, Andreaus Robinson and Maurice Shelton), their coach (Gibran Adejele) and chapter president (Yvette Graham).

Here are the rankings for all 19 teams that competed in 2006 national HSCC championships with the scholarship winnings for each student in parenthesis:

1. Chicago ($2500 Bemley Scholarship)
   
2. Southern Minnesota ($1500 Bemley Scholarship)
   
3. Washington DC ($500 Bemley Scholarship)
   
4. Chattanooga
   
5. Central Illinois
   
6. Richmond
   
7. Austin
   
8. Hartford
   
9. Cincinnati
   
10. Los Angeles
    
11. Charlotte
    
12. Philadelphia
    
13. Detroit
    
14. Twin Cities
    
15. Dayton
    
16. Dallas
    
17. St. Louis
    
18. Atlanta
    
19. Rhode Island

This was the only year since 2002 where we didn't have HSCC teams trained by Cleveland or New Jersey chapters in the competition.

Our foundation seeks to increase the number of students that receive Bemley Scholarships in 2009 and beyond. To do so, we need your help. Please consider making an online donation to help us interest young people in science and technology.

Anyhow, were any of you at the 2006 National BDPA Technology Conference held in Los Angeles, CA? Do you remember the HSCC championships? Do you remember any of the workshops or speakers from that year's conference?

HSCC Testimonial: Karole Johnson (2005-2006)

Originally Posted: 1/3/2008

We are pleased to share another testimonial from a student participant in our youth education programs provided for K-12 students all over the nation. This young sister comes to us from Richmond, VA.

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"My name is Karole Johnson and I am currently a freshman at High Point University in High Point, NC. I was a 2006 graduate of The Steward School in Richmond, VA. I have participated in the BDPA High School Computer Competition (HSCC) Training program since I was in the seventh grade. My first conference experience was in Chicago. Even though I was only 12 years old, I remember having so much fun and meeting people who are still my friends to this day.

Since then, I have traveled to Orlando, Philadelphia, Dallas, Detroit, and Los Angeles. I participated in the Youth Conference for four years, and I learned a lot in the seminars. My favorite part of any BDPA youth conference had to be the ‘Student Outing’ to one of the local businesses (behind the scenes at Disney) or colleges (University of Texas at Dallas). This was my favorite part of the conference because I got to see how life was in other parts of the country.

Starting in my junior year, 2005, I participated on the Richmond HSCC Team. I had fun participating in the oral and written competitions. The programming competition was where I grew. Not only did I grow in my programming skills, but I also grew in my time-management skills. Those eight hours are very challenging. You have to use your brain and your memory to do the problem correctly.

Throughout training and competition, one skill that I learned that will bring me success in the future is paying attention to details. Coding is a skill that has to be done perfectly or you will not have the outcome you desire. One missing letter or bracket will upset your whole program.

The most important skill that I learned is time-management. Eight hours is a whole lot shorter than it sounds. Being Project-Manager in 2006 taught me that I really had to pay attention to time, what we were working on, and what needed to be done. The stress got to me a couple of times, but I learned to work through it and keep going until they said we were out of time. I also learned a lot about being on a team in a challenging situation. I learned to keep up a positive outlook no matter what might be going wrong.

Also in 2006, I received a scholarship award from Bank of America that has greatly benefited me in my college career.

The most memorable thing from my years participating with HSCC is all of the friends that I have made. I have met so many unforgettable people not only from Richmond, but from across the country. I have friends in Milwaukee, Chicago, Dayton, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and even Canada that I would never have gotten the chance to meet if it were not for BDPA. All in all, BDPA has given me lasting memories, lasting friends, and lasting skills that I will continue to use throughout my life.

My most memorable experience was in LA. First of all, we placed 6th in the competition this past year. As Project Manager, I was very happy for myself and for my team. I learned more about myself and my team, and we formed a friendship that is going to last for a long time. To celebrate, our coordinator took us around LA and to Santa Monica Beach. Everybody has a dream of going to California, seeing the Hollywood sign, going down Rodeo Drive, and living like a star. My dream came true. As we rode into Beverly Hills, I was all smiles. Going down Rodeo Drive made me realize ‘I want to be able to shop here one day.’ The whole LA experience was amazing."

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This young sister has been engaged in BDPA youth education programs since she was 12-years old! She has been able to travel all over the country as a result of her ties to BDPA. Isn't it time that you made a donation to BDPA Education & Technology Foundation so that other young people can participate in 2008!

In the meantime, are their any Richmond chapter members here that want to share some insights on Karole with us? Heck, someone tell Karole to come over and leave her online signature by using the POST A COMMENT feature!

BDPA Photo Album by Thomas Polk

If a picture is worth a thousand words ... here are 3,585 photos worth over three million words for you!

• 3Q-2008 National Board of Directors Meeting (67 photos)
• Aug 2008 National Executive Committee Meeting (46 photos)
• 2007 Conference, Day 1 (82 photos)
• 2007 Conference, Day 2 (88 photos)
• 2007 Conference, Day 3 (180 photos)
• 2007 Conference, Day 4 (44 photos)
• 2006 Conference (1034 photos)
• 2005 Conference (1860 photos)
• 2Q-2005 National Board of Directors Meeting (184 photos)

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These photos were taken by Thomas Polk, owner of Polk Photography. You can reach him by phone at (216) 921-5113.

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Do you know of other photos from the conference that we are missing? I encourage you to upload any of your conference photos to our BDPA Photo Album!

HSCC Testimonial: Elise Jefferson (2006)

Elise Jefferson was on the 2006 silver-medal winning team from Rochester, MN. She shared her thoughts on the process:

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"I decided to participate in the Youth Computer Training Program because my older siblings had participated. I knew it would be an educational experience based on their stories, and I was interested in trying to learn a new "language".

Training for the HSCC was certainly strenuous. Luckily, my teammates and I got along very well, and worked well together. We were able to play off our strengths, which proved to be the best method for achieving the success that we did. There were some long nights, but I could tell that each of us liked what we were doing, so we were still able to enjoy ourselves in the process.

The week of the competition was extremely exciting. We were prepared, and we knew that there was no better way to test our skills than to compare it to other teams'.

I would tell other students to sign up for BDPA as soon as they are eligible. I would advise them to work very hard and to attend the class every single Saturday. They should listen to the instructors and take their advice, because they know what they are talking about when it comes to this training. However, most of all...have fun! Meet new people who are interested in the same things you are; it is a wonderful experience."

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Elise is now attending the University of Minnesota with assistance from the Bemley Scholarship she won in 2006. Do you have any comments for young people like Elise that you want to share?