Brotherly Love: Teaching Tech to High School Kids

Repost from CBS affiliate in Philadelphia!



By Ukee Washington

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – President Obama has been encouraging high school students to major in engineering, science, or math. Now, a group of minority tech professionals has decided to take that one step further by giving weekend lessons to the next generation.

In a computer lab at DeVry University in Center City, students are practicing the finer points of computer coding.

Daneel Douglas, a senior at Philadelphia Electrical and Technology Charter High School, joked, “They say there are two different kinds of people in this world: those that know binary and those that don’t. And I can say I know binary!”

Every computer runs on zeros and ones, but someone has to tell it what to do. That’s what these students are learning at this free programming class held every Saturday morning by tech professional organization BDPA, which stands for Black Data Processing Associates.

Eileen Gadsden

“We don’t think they’re going to be programmers over the 44-week course,” said Eileen Gadsden, president of BDPA Philadelphia. “What we want them to do is like it enough that they choose it in college, and then make it a profession.”

BDPA Philadelphia encourages STEM fields: science, technology, engineering and math.

Phillip Easton, a senior at Central High School, said, “I want to either be an accountant or go into computer science.”

“I wasn’t really into computers at first, but then I noticed it can get me a lot of opportunities,” said Jasmine Beard, a junior at Central High School.

Jerry Wargo, the campus president of DeVry University Philadelphia, said, “It’s just a perfect fit for them to come in on Saturday morning, when most kids are sleeping, and practice and learn.”

Tech professionals volunteer to teach the students, who help each other, too.

Norman Morrison, a senior at Philadelphia Military Academy, said, “If you need help coding something, you just ask your neighbor.”

James Gadsden went through the program in high school. “It’s kind of, in a way, like school. You have to make sure you keep up with your assignments,” he said.

Now, James uses those skills at the Community College of Philadelphia, where he is studying mass media communications, thanks at least in part to those Saturday mornings in the lab.

The students will also compete at a national technology competition later this year.

So far, 100 percent of the students in the program have gone on to college.

To find out more about BDPA, visit: www.BDPAPhilly.org

Good News Tuesday: James Peterson III - Future Face of Technology

Yvette Graham, James Peterson, Milt Haynes

I met James Peterson III in 2008 when National BDPA recognized him with their Epsilon Awards as their 'Most Promising Technologist'.

James has lived up to that high honor with his work over the past few years. Today we learned that James is finishing the last year of his MBA program at Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University’s Tinley Park location. James recently accepted a position with an accounting and consulting leader, Deloitte Consulting.

Here is interview that James recently completed with the folks at Keller where he shares some of his wisdom and advice for his Keller peers. I thought it was a great addition to our weekly Good News Tuesday meme!

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1. How did you develop an interest of the field of that you are currently in?
   My mother is the Executive Director of Nursing for the Cook County Bureau of Health. After watching her at work and assisting her with her duties I wanted to be just like her, only in a different industry. After realizing that project management is one of my best professional qualities I decided to pursue that as a career in the technology sector since that is what I have experience in.
2. What successes have you achieved thus far and how was it made possible?
   My greatest success to date has been being profiled in Black Enterprise magazine (March 2008). I responded to an advertisement in the October 2007 issue asking for submissions pertaining to how Black Enterprise magazine has helped to shape your career. I submitted my article and the rest is history.
3. From what Keller program will you be graduating?
   MBA – Project Management concentration, June 2011
4. What has been your favorite experience at Keller so far?
   Taking GM 545 in the Atlanta Perimeter center. I loved that class and the professor made statistics very interesting, I ended up getting an A in that class.
5. What motivated you to succeed at Keller?
   I wanted to have the suffixes MBA & PMP listed after my name.
6. What will be your title and role (job description) with Deloitte?
   Business Technology Master Consultant – Technology Division, Systems Integration service line. Duties will involve interfacing directly with clients (Fortune 1000 and Government) with regards to delivering valued services and technology solutions aligned to their strategic goals and initiatives.
7. What do you feel set you apart from the competition?
   My competition came from medium and large size public institutions where firms like Deloitte routinely recruit from on-campus. Most of the students from these schools feel as if their institution name and degree title should “elevate” them into the roles and organizations that they seek employment in. I feel that my desire to achieve success and to outperform my competition is what separates me from the rest. Keller trained me to get the job done, not to rely on an outsider’s subjective ranking.
8. How did your Keller experience prepare you for this role?
   Keller prepared me for this role by having classes scheduled for every 8 weeks. Each class in a sense becomes a project and this has conditioned me to working quickly, delivering quality results and gaining real-world expertise and instruction.
9. What advice would you have for your Keller peers?
   When you tell your peers what school you’ve attended (or are attending) and they get it confused with another graduate school, kindly correct them. If they sneer or give you awkward looks, please inform them that you attend a high caliber and quality school that actually prepares you to become leaders in business, and not to rely on someone’s name or brand to become successful. Also, Join professional organizations that are related to your professional goals and network, network, network!!!

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This blog will continue to seek out Good News stories about people of African descent and share them with you each Tuesday. Please pass along any Good News stories that come your way!

In the meantime, I encourage you to share some love with James Peterson III. Perhaps we'll get enough good vibes going here that he'll come by and visit himself!

Grant Recipient: BDPA Bay Area ($1,350)

BDPA Education & Technology Foundation (BETF) is proud to announce funding approval for BDPA Bay Area chapter in the amount of $1,350.

BDPA Bay Area chapter president Patricia Glover plans to use the funding to purchase text books ('Design Fundamentals for New Media') for a web development training course being co-sponsored by DeVry University.

Did you know that this is the 10th BDPA chapter to receive financial support from BETF so far this year? The total financial support from BETF to BDPA chapters is now over $161,289 so far in this calendar year. We can do more if we can convince you to make a secure online donation today.

What say u?