Dr. Melodie Mayberry-Stewart Will Keynote 2010 BDPA New York Scholarship Awards Dinner

Melodie Mayberry-Stewart is the chief information officer for the state of New York. She was recently named one of the Top 50 African Americans in Technology. I'm looking forward to meeting her on Wednesday, November 10, 2010 in Brooklyn NY. I will be the master of ceremonies at the BDPA New York Chapter Scholarship & Awards Dinner. Ms. Mayberry-Stewart will be the keynote speaker.

The purpose of the dinner is to recognize the outstanding contributions of BDPA New York chapter’s community supporters and corporate sponsors as well as award college scholarships to our students, who are members of the BDPA Student Information Technology Education & Scholarship (SITES) program. The SITES program affords students the opportunity to get hands-on computer and web development training, exposure to various careers in Information Technology and develop professional and interpersonal skills (i.e. business etiquette skills, resume writing and team building). This program is designed to develop the next generation of IT Professionals, and encourage African American youth to explore careers in such traditionally underrepresented fields as Computer Science and Information Technology.

Another highlight of the evening will be the announcement of the winners of the Roger Dunn Memorial Scholarship and the Renee McClure Scholarship Awards. These awards go to BDPA SITES students who have demonstrated strong excellent leaderships skills. BETF helped to fund both of these awards in the past.

I hope that you will consider supporting this annual event with your presence in person or via an advertisement in the program guide. Those of you that are unable to find a business-related reason to support the chapter can do so with a tax-deductible donation to the BDPA Education and Technology Foundation.

Grant Recipient: BDPA New York ($1,000)

BETF provided $1,000 grant to BDPA New York chapter. The chapter used the funding to establish the Roger Dunn Memorial Scholarship and the Renee McClure Scholarship, which will be awarded to SITES students who have demonstrated strong excellent leaderships skills.

Some of the funding used to cover transportation expenses for students trained by BDPA New York chapter to attend the Northeast Regional competition at Bowie State University in June 2009. The students (Kevin Castillo, Cazemba Richards and Alan Rosales) won 3rd place at the regional competition.

BETF has provided $155,339 in funding support to BDPA chapters since the beginning of the year. Is your chapter working with BETF on fundraising ideas?