IT-oLogy Renews Bronze Level Sponsorship

BDPA Greater Columbia chapter proudly announced the renewal of its Bronze-level sponsorship from IT-oLogy. IT-oLogy is a non profit collaboration of businesses, academic institutions and organizations dedicated to growing the IT talent pipeline, fostering economic development and advancing the IT profession. The organization works tirelessly to promote, teach and grow information technology with its programs and services.

BDPA Greater Columbia receives in-kind facilities donation to conduct its annual computer camp impacting 8th-thru-12th graders as well as its monthly program meetings for IT professionals in South Carolina.

Lonnie Emard

"IT-oLogy values the partnership and alliance with BDPA because combining our efforts to solve our national IT talent shortage is creating a winning formula for employers, professionals, students and ultimately for the economic condition of the USA," says IT-oLogy president Lonnie Emard.

IT-oLogy provided a college scholarship to BDPA student member Jerron Jamerson. Jerron is now an IT intern with Duke Energy as he completes work on his computer science degree from Winston-Salem State University. BDPA is very proud of its long-term partnership with IT-oLogy.

High School Computer Competition (Greater Columbia, 2014)

BDPA Greater Columbia (chartered May 1997) reminds me of the little engine that could. The chapter has trained hundreds of K-12 students in its Student Information Technology Education & Scholarship (SITES) program over the years. The chapter has great community and corporate support through sponsors such as IT-oLogy. Many wonderful students, such as Anthony Coleman, Raven Stevenson and Brandi Taylor, from this chapter have received college scholarships as a result of their BDPA activity.



The next logical step is for BDPA Greater Columbia chapter to win the national BDPA HSCC championship. Could it happen this year?

BDPA Columbia chapter trained 15 students this year. Chapter volunteers worked with these students to develop and increase Information Technology skills and knowledge with seminars and workshops in web development (asp.net), programming (vb.net) databases (mysql), java script, system development life-cycle, web site story boarding and agile project management methodology. Also, these students participated in workshops focused on video creation and editing, creating web page profile, and oral presentations.

L-R: Perry Cates, Kevin Rabinovich, Joel Schirmer, Cody Shearer, James Smith,
Jalil Peterman, Makayla Ishaml, Constance Elkins and Braxton Robinson

The chapter would love to hoist a championship trophy. Whether they do or not ... our blog readers can help ensure that these young people receive college scholarships by simply making a secure online donation! We might find the next Raven Stevenson with your help!



What say u?

Related articles

• 36th Annual BDPA Technology Conference (Indianapolis, August 5-9, 2014)
• Overview: BDPA High School Computer Competition

Congratulations to BETF College Scholarship Winners (2011)

BDPA Education and Technology Foundation (BETF) has given out almost $400,000 in college scholarships over the years.  Chris Johnson is chair of the BDPA Foundation Scholarship Committee. He shared an update with the Foundation's board of directors on recent scholarship funds sent to post-secondary educational institutions around the country on the behalf of deserving BDPA student members:

• $3,000 to Matthew Clark, Detroit chapter (Lawrence Technological University)
• $10,500 to Yaa Kwansa, Southern Minnesota chapter (Washington University of St. Louis)
• $4,500 to Titus Thomas, Washington DC chapter (Bowie State University University)
• $1,500 to Kenneth McCune, Chicago chapter (Southern Illinois University)
• $500 to Nia Love, Atlanta chapter (Valdosta State University)
• $3,000 to Lauren Pemberton, Southern Minnesota chapter (Rice University)
• $500 to Trene Long-Reed, Atlanta chapter (University of West Georgia)
• $1,500 to Courtney Elzy, Chicago chapter (Illinois State University)
• $2,500 to Adwait Walimbe, Southern Minnesota chapter (University of Minnesota)
• $2,500 to Jala Cruz, Indianapolis chapter (Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis)
• $2,000 to Jerron Jamerson, Charlotte chapter (Winston-Salem State University)

Brothers and sisters ... we need your help! Please consider making a tax-deductible pledge to the Bemley Scholarship Fund. Just COMMENT on this post with the amount of your pledge. We'll take it from there.

Or ... you can make an online donation!

First Annual BDPA IT-oLogy Scholarship Awarded to Charlotte High School Student

BDPA Education and Technology Foundation (BETF) and the Consortium for Enterprise Systems Management awarded the first annual BDPA IT-oLogy scholarship to Jerron Jamerson.

Jamerson was selected based on the quality of his application, essay and letters of recommendation. In his essay, Jerron wrote, “Continuous advances in computer science have helped to make business processes more efficient and technology more cost effective for consumers, while computer applications become more and more user-friendly.” Jamerson, a senior at Phillip O’Berry Academy in Charlotte, North Carolina, plans use this one-time $2,000 scholarship to study Computer Science at South Carolina State University.

The scholarship was offered to student members of National BDPA. Applicants had to excel academically, show exceptional leadership potential and make an impact on their communities through service to others. Applicants had to be high school seniors from South Carolina or North Carolina or planning to attend a college in either of these two states.

IT-oLogy is offering this scholarship to continue to encourage more young people to look into Information Technology as a career. “Students who pick IT as their profession have the unique opportunity to pick any industry or type of business to apply their skills and help create the future,” stated Lonnie Emard, Executive Director of IT-oLogy.

“We hope to continue to impact on the advancement of our students into science, technology, engineering or math related careers and getting a degree in information technology is one way to get it done, " said BDPA Education and Technology Foundation Executive Director Wayne Hicks.