Hotep! BDPA Education & Technology Foundation (BETF) exists to provide financial support for BDPA. We share information about fundraising, funding sources and BDPA programs on this blog. The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent BDPA’s positions, strategies or opinions.
Dr. Craig Brown - National Vice President, BDPA - Dr. Craig Brown was elected to be National BDPA Vice President (2012-2013). He will work with incoming national president Monique Berry and the incoming regional officers to take BDPA to the next level. Dr. Brown has a 25 year career serving as an expert systems and database architect within leading technologies like Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP, IBM and Microsoft. His experiences are more particular to the Enterprise Resource Planning, Decision Support and Relational Database Management Systems technologies. He earned over 20 certifications within these technological areas and currently provides implementation and integration expertise along with a variety of other technological disciplines. He holds a BS in Computer Science as well as a Master's in Business and a Doctorate in Management Information Systems. He has over 1 million followers on Twitter and thousands of followers on his Facebook page. Dr. Brown shared his vision for the future of BDPA with our BDPA iRadio Show audience. His twitter handle is @craigbrownphd
Beverly Allen - High School Computer Competition coordinator, BDPA Los Angeles - Beverly Allen has been the HSCC coordinator for our BDPA Los Angeles chapter for a number of years. She watched her son, Terell, participate in national HSCC championships in 2007-2009 before going off to college at Morehouse College. The computer camp program in Los Angeles is making remarkable progress under its leadership … including winning the bronze medal at the 2012 National HSCC championship. The 2013 computer camp program is underway with over 35 students. Beverly has a unique way to look at the BDPA Student Information Technology Education & Scholarship (SITES) program that will be of interest to BDPA-Nation. Her chapter's twitter handle is @bdpala
Jacqueline Sanders - VP, Education & Professional Development, BDPA Atlanta - Jacqueline is part of the BDPA Atlanta leadership team that is shaking up the nation. Her chapter won numerous honors at the 2012 national conference … and they have their eyes set on the largest prize of all – ‘Chapter of the Year’ – right now. A major part of that success can be found in the education and professional development programs that Jacqueline is providing for IT professionals in Atlanta. This includes an ambitious professional development boot camp. The boot camp provides an intense all-day interactive series of exercises to test and challenge participants soft skills. Participants leave with a personalized assessment, mentoring and a career roadmap. Her twitter handle is @RequirementsPro We hope you enjoy the insights and commentary on the show from each of these guests. Please take a moment to post a comment to let us know that you care!
Beverly Allen has been the HSCC coordinator for our BDPA Los Angeles chapter for a number of years. She watched her son, Terell, participate in national HSCC championships in 2007-2009 before going off to college at Morehouse College.
She shared the following update on the young people that represented BDPA Los Angeles chapter at the recently concluded national conference in Baltimore, MD.
Our Youth Technology Camp (YTC) students began their week by getting hands-on with multimedia. Students were assigned to cross-chapter teams that were responsible for directing, filming, editing, and producing their own video. Student participants also attended a workshop where they learned how to build mobile applications via the Android platform. Toward the end of the week, students received a guided tour of Northrop Grumman’s corporate headquarters. During the tour, students were able to view and ask questions about radars, the evolution and business impact of the microchip, and how radars are actually tested via Northrop Grumman’s fleet of aircraft near the Baltimore airport. Most importantly, students learned the value of degrees in Computer Science and Engineering from Northrop Grumman staff during each stage of the tour.
Our High School Computer Competition (HSCC) students participated in the software programming portion of the conference. After many months of coding, presentation preparation, and team leadership training, our students went into the competition fully prepared. This year’s business case involved developing an application that allowed a customer to select and purchase DVDs. After 9 hours of laying out a plan, coding, and presenting to a panel of judges; out came 5 tired students. Our team completed the entire business case and impressed the judges with their presentation ability.
In the end, our HSCC team placed 3rd out of 17 competing teams from 45 chapters! This was the first time in BDPA Los Angeles’ history to make it to the stage and receive a team scholarship award. It was also a huge improvement over last year’s performance (14th place).
Many thanks to our major sponsor (Raytheon Company), our host facility (Cal State Dominguez Hills) and all of the volunteers, parents, and enthusiastic students who made this year’s youth computer science program our best yet!
We encourage all BETF-Blog Readers in southern California to come share as Dr. Erica O'Neal Howard (Caltech Assistant Vice President) shares scholarship and college life information. At the same time, Beverly Allen (Caltech IT Director) will bring enlightenment on recent technology trends and areas we as IT professionals should be guiding our high school and college students, and areas we need to explore to remain marketable in today's work environment.
Dr. Erica O’Neal Howard is Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs at Caltech. Her responsibilities focus on enrollment management and student diversity. A native southern Californian and a cum laude graduate of Harvard, Erica holds a master's of science and a PhD in higher education from the University of Pennsylvania. She has conducted research on the effectiveness of focused academic programs and published articles and given talks on issues of diversity, academic preparation, and organizational change.
Beverly Allen is the Director of Business Systems Development for Information Management Systems and Services (IMSS) at Caltech. She has been with Caltech for seven years. Her responsibilities are to provide management, direction, and oversight for application developers supporting all administrative areas, including Finance, Human Resources, Student Services, and the Academic Divisions. She is also responsible for directing the implementation and management to meet Caltech’s productivity, quality, and client satisfaction targets. Her background is in the area of implementing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems.
The meeting logistics are as follows:
When: Wednesday, November 28, 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Location: Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Mall Community Meeting Room (first floor, near Sears, adjacent to the Police Office) 3650 West Martin Luther King Blvd, Los Angeles, CA
You can RSVP online or phone (818.266-9147). Our BDPA Los Angeles chapter is currently the 17th largest chapter in the nation. I anticipate that they will be in the Top Ten before MLK's birthday. Help 'em out if you can!
