Member on the Move: Alan Rosales (University of Rochester, Class of 2014)

Alan Rosales

BDPA Education and Technology Foundation began following the exploits of Alan Rosales in 2009 when we shared his High School Computer Competition (HSCC) testimonial on this blog.  Alan Rosales is a HSCC alumnus from the New York Chapter.

BDPA New York chapter legend Denise Hamilton recently shared an update on the academic accomplishments of this young squire.  Alan graduated from the University of Rochester with a bachelor of science in Biomedical Engineering in May 2014.   BDPA supported Alan's educational pursuits by providing him with at least two scholarships - Dr. Jesse Bemley Scholarship and Oracle Scholarship.  Alan appreciates BDPA for the scholarship awards.  Alan credits his participation in the BDPA HSCC program for sparking the idea to pursue a career in the biomedical engineering industry.

Alan was an active member of the University of Rochester campus.  He served in a number of leadership roles with the campus chapter of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers up to and including its presidency in 2013-2014.  Alan also worked in the biochemistry research laboratory at the University of Rochester Medical Center under the guidance of Dr. Mark E. Dumont.

Alan’s short term goal is to volunteer at various research labs to determine whether he wants to work in cell and tissue engineering, biochemistry, molecular, genetics, or cancer-focused research. He plans to purse a PhD in either biochemistry or biomedical engineering.

BDPA provides programs, scholarships and services that help its young people win the future in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.  Alan Rosales is an example of the wonderful results of the work being done in 46 local chapters around the nation by selfless volunteers such as Denise Hamilton.   Our nation needs to see more young people of color succeeding in STEM fields.   If you know of another nonprofit organization that is doing more in this space ... then donate to them.   However, if you know that BDPA is doing 'good works' that should be encouraged ... then donate to us ... and to it TODAY!   That is best way you can honor the graduation of Alan Rosales!

Grant Recipient: BDPA New York ($500)

BDPA Education and Technology Foundation (BETF) is proud to award $500 grant funding to BDPA New York chapter as part of the disbursement of our $25,000 American Honda Foundation grant. BDPA New York chapter earned this funding as a direct result of the college scholarships that they provided to Cazemba Richards and Alan Rosales.

Cazemba and Alan

Cazemba competed in four (4) National BDPA High School Computer Competition (HSCC) championships between 2007-2010.   Alan joined Cazemba in the last three (3) championships between 2008-2010.  Both earned Jesse Bemley Scholarships as a result of the high performance by their team in the 2009 HSCC championship held in Raleigh, NC.    

The American Honda Foundation grant is partially funding the scholarship that Cazemba is using to study computer science at Clarkson University as well as the scholarship used by Alan to study biomedical engineering at the University of Rochester.

BDPA New York chapter president Renetta English and chapter VP-Finance Wanda Jackson approached BETF for this $500 funding and it was approved within a two weeks. BETF looks forward to helping all 45 local BDPA chapters with fundraising for their STEM-based programs.

Oracle Scholarship Winner in New York

BDPA New York High School Computer Competition (HSCC) team member Alan Rosales was awarded $2,778 in scholarship funding from Oracle Corporation to pursue his degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Rochester. The scholarship was presented to him in 2010.

BDPA New York chapter past president Judaea Lane wrote, "Alan is truly a humble and wonderful person."

In addition to being humble and wonderful it is obvious that the young squire has some skills! He was named 2010 Salutatorian upon his graduation from Medgar Evers College Preparatory School in New York.

BDPA Education and Technology Foundation (BETF) recently acknowledged Alan as a recipient of the Dr. Jesse Bemley Scholarship that he earned for his performance at the 2009 National BDPA High School Computer Competition championship held in Raleigh, North Carolina.

You can learn more about BDPA New York chapter here.

Bemley Scholar Alan Rosales Heads to University of Rochester

Alan Rosales

Alan Rosales is a young man that I have enjoyed watching over the past few years in the national BDPA High School Computer Competition (HSCC) championships. He has been a true warrior for his chapter ... and he earned a Jesse Bemley Scholarship as a result of the performance by him (and his teammates) during the 2009 national HSCC championships.

Alan used his scholarship to help defray some of the costs to attend the University of Rochester.

He took some time to share his thoughts on his experience with BDPA over the past few years.

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Ever since I began my high education at Medgar Evers College Preparatory School, I knew I was interested in computers and technology. While in 9th grade, I took an introductory course in computer science. Towards the end of the first semester my teacher, Mr. Destine, told me about BDPA and a specific competition, HSCC, for high schools students who showed an interest in programming. I was definitely interested, and once I was given a full understanding of the program, I began training. Unfortunately I wasn't able to be a part of the 2007 HSCC team and complete at nationals.

But that didn't stop me from continuing to practice my programming skills. The following year, I made the 2008 HSCC team and completed at nationals in Atlanta, Georgia. I also made the team for 2009 and 2010. I remember my first HSCC experience at Atlanta, Georgia like it was yesterday. Being that it was my first competition ever, I was a little bit terrified. As lead programmer for the team, I felt that it was my responsibility to stay focus and lead the team to victory, increasing the amount of pressure on me.

During the first portion of the competition, we had to answer five multiple choice questions as a team. I remember that by working together, we were able to get all five questions correct. Since that seemed like a breeze, I began to lose some fright. The next portion of the competition was to answer as many multiple choice questions that we could individually in 15 minutes. That was a little more intense, but after practicing quiz factory, I was able to score a legitimate amount of points in order to decrease the team's ranking.

The last portion of the competition was the most challenging and most anticipated. During the last portion, each team was given roughly 7 hours to create a dynamic database-driven application. This was very intense because all we had to work with was each other's coding techniques. After 7 hours of non-stop coding it was time for us to leave the coding room. It was very intense sitting in that room due to the tension from each team's ambition to place first and from the complexity of the problem.

2008 HSCC Team from New York

Once we left the room, we felt as if a weight was lifted off our shoulders; as if now, we could start breathing properly again. But the competition wasn't just yet; we still had to prepare our presentation in order to "sell" our application to the judges. Luckily, that year we were almost last, therefore we had enough time to practice our presentation. When we went back to the coding room, we did everything we could to convince the judges that our application was the best. Of course they asked questions that left us unsure of what to say, and they were able to find errors in our coding, but that is all part of the learning process. That year, the New York Chapter HSCC team came in 6th place. That was considered a major achievement for us because being that 2008 was the first time most of competed, we were still able to come in 6th place.

For the following years we practiced even more and tried to stay on top of our game. In 2009 at Raleigh, NC we came in 5th place and in 2010 at Philadelphia, PA we came in 6th place.

2010 HSCC Team from New York

Unfortunately last year was the last time I would be able to participate in HSCC. It was definitely a great experience and I am thankful that BDPA was able to come to my high school out of all the high schools in NYC. HSCC has taught me to think quickly on my feet, and has exposed me to new programming languages such as PHP, HTML, JavaScript, and MySQL. Just the opportunity of attending a national conference has taught me that even people of color can become successful by being able to listen to people's success stories.

Because of BDPA I have been able to get many opportunities that would eventually follow me through college. For instance BDPA has given me a sense of accomplishment because how many students can actually say that they have been able to code like real programmers, that they have been able to listen to success stories, that they have been able to intern with several corporations, not many that is for sure.

I am now currently a freshman at the University of Rochester with plans to major in Biomedical Engineering while on the Pre-Med track and to possibly minor in Physics. While I was applying to the University of Rochester I mentioned on my application all of my experiences with BDPA and the opportunity that I was given to compete at the national level in a programming competition. The university was very impressed with what I had done in just a couple of years in high school. I will never forget what my acceptance letter said from the University of Rochester. My acceptance letter had mentioned that after reviewing my application and learning about my experiences with BDPA, they knew I was a perfect candidate for the class of 2014. Because of this I am truly grateful for BDPA, not only for all the opportunities it has given me, but because it serves as a form of achievement for me.

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BDPA New York chapter is raising funds so that the members of their 2011 national HSCC team can each win scholarships as well. I hope that you will read the impact that BDPA had on Alan and make a decision to support the BDPA New York HSCC Scholarship Fund project.

I also hope that you will reply to this post with some 'BDPA-love' for Alan. This young man is truly demonstrating what it means when BDPA says that we advance the careers of people in the IT industry from the classroom to the boardroom!

BDPA New York HSCC Team Meets Chief of Naval Operations

Student finalists from BDPA New York Chapter High School Computer Competition Team speak with Admiral Gary Roughead, CNO, during the 35th annual BDPA Awards Gala Reception.

Pictured above (L-R) are Nicholas Reid, Kevin Rey Castillo, Cazemba Richards, and Alan Rosales with the Admiral.

HSCC Testimonial: Alan Rosales (New York)

I have followed the journey of BDPA New York chapter for a number of years. The current chapter president, Judaea Lane, is a passionate leader who has given everything to support the progress of the Student Information Technology Education & Scholarship (SITES) program in New York. The chapter funds that ordinarily would have taken her to the annual conference in Raleigh NC were diverted to ensure that New York chapter students could participate in the IT Showcase.

One of the students that is helping to uplift the NY chapter SITES program is Alan Rosales. Alan and his teammates earned Jesse Bemley Scholarships from the BDPA Education & Technology Foundation (BETF). Here are his thoughts about the national competition held in Raleigh NC.

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The national conference was great, especially the high school computer competition [HSCC]. The New York Chapter team consisting of Frantzy Jean Philippe, Cazmeba Richards, Kevin Castillo and myself, Alan Rosales, first arrived at Raleigh, North Carolina early in the morning. We stayed at the hotel all day brushing up on our programming skills and quiz factory scores.

The next day we woke up early in the morning for the first two parts of the competition. We had to do the oral part [where we answer 5 questions as a team] and the written part [where we individually answer as many questions as we can correct in 15 minutes]. But, there was a complication that day. Since last year it was announced that it was going to be the last year that we were going to use the quiz factory software and the operating system Windows XP, we were provided with a new software, Adit Software and our computers were upgraded to Windows Vista.
When we arrived at the orals, we found out that there were some problems with the setup, so instead of starting at 8:00AM we were told to go back to the hotel and come back until 2:00PM. We were able to complete the oral portion, but then another issue came up for the written and it was delayed again. We had to come back and ended up starting around 7:00PM. We did find out that the National team had to switch to using XP due to hardware problems, focusing the whole competition on Friday, the programming part.

The next day it wasn't a surprise that we weren't going to start early as planned. We started around 10:00AM instead of at 8:00AM and only 7hrs were given to us instead of 8hrs, since we had to present our application to the judges when were done, so the pressure was on. That day it was very chaotic because time was of the essence and we had to finish the problem in order to rank high. We used PHP, MYSQL, HTML, JavaScript and CSS to complete the problem and as lead programmer it was my job to code and use the programming languages to complete the task.

This year's conference brought up many challenges living up to the 2009 national conference theme, "Challenges For Today, Strategies For Tomorrow". The winners were announced on Saturday evening during the banquet [the judges consider placing 1st through 5th] and the New York team came in 5th place. We weren't very happy with the outcome but we were satisfied. I had loads of help from my team members and without them we probably wouldn't have placed.

So for next year, being that it will be our last year in the HSCC team, we are working hard towards winning 1st place. I hope that every HSCC team is ready for next year because New York will definitely be ready; I can't wait to see everyone at Philadelphia for the 2010 national conference and if this year's conference was great, I can't even imagine how next year's conference will be.

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BETF will make a decision shortly on the amount to allocate for 2010 Bemley Scholarships. It appears we will need to cut back on those scholarships next year unless we get some support from donors over the coming weeks. Please consider making an online donation to the Bemley Scholarship fund today in support of Alan and the other students who are working so hard around the nation.