BDPA Foundation Announces 2014 Eli Lilly Scholarship Winners

The BDPA Education and Technology Foundation (BETF), in coordination with Eli Lilly and Company, is pleased to announce the winner of the 8th annual Eli Lilly and Company Scholarship for BDPA Students. The two winners this year are Pooja Chebolu, incoming freshman at University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA) and Dylan  Gunn, junior at North Carolina A&T (Cincinnati, OH).


The purpose of the Eli Lilly Scholarship for BDPA Students is to recognize outstanding minority students, with an interest in information technology, who make significant contributions to society. Applicants must excel academically, show exceptional leadership potential, and make an impact on their communities through service to others.

“We are committed to supporting programs that provide opportunities for young people to explore and enhance their careers in science and technology. Education is so vital in creating the professionals who will contribute to the discovery of innovative medicines of the future,” said Janice Chavers, Director, HR and Diversity Communications, Eli Lilly and Company.

Pooja is a long-term member of our BDPA Los Angeles chapter.  She competed for a number of years as part of the chapter's High School Computer Competition ... winning two Dr. Jesse Bemley Scholarships.  This is her first time winning the Eli Lilly Scholarship for BDPA Students!  Part of the application process is an essay that answers the question 'Why is Information Technology Important'.  Pooja's essay focused on the various facets of the web.  As she says, the "web connects more than machines, it connects people".  Click here for the full text of her winning essay.

"I am beyond thrilled to be named a recipient of the Eli Lilly Scholarship for BDPA Students! BDPA has certainly enabled me to appreciate the sheer depth of IT through its programming courses, but in alleviating the financial burden of paying for college with its scholarship programs, this organization has forged unparalleled opportunities and truly inspired me to use computing to benefit contemporary society. I couldn't be more thankful!"

Dylan is a long-time member of our BDPA Cincinnati chapter. His essay focused on the impact of technology on the lives of his generation, Generation Y.  Click here for the full text of his winning essay.

"These past two years have been full of ups & downs, but a roller coaster wouldn't be fun if it were just a straight line going full speed. It's true what they say, the absence of evidence isn't the evidence of absence. I received a phone call that made me cry because I thought the evidence to receive such a scholarship wasn't there. They chose me for me, not a GPA alone. Talk about breaking chains!"

Previous Eli Lilly scholars were:

1. 2007, Daniel Puente (University of Texas)
2. 2007, Christian West (Northwestern University)
3. 2008, Khalia Braswell (North Carolina State University)
4. 2008, Lee Reed (University of Michigan)
5. 2009, Hung Vo (Georgia Institute of Technology)
6. 2009, Carrine Johnson (Palos Verdes Peninsula High School)
7. 2010, Leslie Vasquez (Pike High School)
8. 2010, Gerardo Dominguez (Chicago State University)
9. 2011, Jala Cruz (North Central High School)
10. 2011, Adwait Walimbe (John Marshall High School)
11. 2012, Allen Warner (Valdosta State University)
12. 2013, Risa Christopher (Indiana University)
13. 2013, Cameron Hughes (University of California, San Diego)

Bemley Scholar Pooja Chebula Matriculates to University of Southern California

Pooja Chebula

Pooja Chebula is a 3-time member of the national high school computer competition (HSCC) team trained by our BDPA Los Angeles. She earned a Dr. Jesse Bemley Scholarship for the high-level of performance with her team in the 2012 and 2013 HSCC championships. Pooja informed us of her enrollment to the University of Southern California (Class of 2018) seeking her degree in Computer Science and Business Administration.

Pooja is fascinated with creating technology to help society. She is intrigued by methods to mine and correlate data to revolutionize dimensions of information management, especially as applied to health care. She wants to help ensure that the society we build with the Internet is the sort we intend. Dreams are the sine qua non of success and by joining a creative enterprise that encourages "out of the box" thinking, Pooja seeks to discover her passions and help engineer a brighter, healthier, and sustainable tomorrow.

We asked Pooja to share remembrances of her BDPA experiences with us:

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My life had been overtaken by a virus. A computer virus, that is.

Los Angeles (2011)

In January, 2011, I enrolled in an extracurricular computer programming course sponsored by BDPA. Little did I imagine that only a few months later, bitten by the computer bug and effectively enamored of coding, I would serve as the program manager for the Los Angeles High School Computer Competition (HSCC) team and lead our chapter to several regional victories. As we qualified for the national HSCC, our instructors had high expectations that, for the first time in our chapter's history, we would discover our Midas touch and bring home the golden trophy. The thought of partaking in a national competition was quite daunting in itself, but being expected to win while competing against experienced teams made the journey a stressful one.

2011 HSCC Team

As we entered Chicago's Hilton hotel for the opening session of the national conference, we certainly felt like the underdogs. The HSCC consisted of three sections: an oral, written, and programming portion. While our team flew through the first two sections, we faced grave difficulties in the programming portion. The 2011 business case called for the development of a custom Laptop purchasing application akin to Dell.com. At first glance, I was relieved to note that we were capable of executing nearly all of the functionality requirements. As we delved into the actual coding, however, I discovered that the case was far more complex than it had initially seemed. Cut off from the rest of the world and without access to the Internet, we were trapped: we simply did not understand the presented database schema. Unable to create the application without a clear understanding of the database relations, we essentially accepted defeat within the first few hours of the competition and solely coded preliminary pages of the site that did not involve convoluted database linkages. Naturally, we were shellacked in the competition, emerging a petty fourteenth place out of seventeen competing teams.

As project manager, I felt especially guilty as we landed in LAX and prepared to relay the news of our disappointing loss to our eagerly awaiting parents. I had failed my team: some of my teammates not only bid goodbye to one another, but they also left the programming field altogether. In striving for the prize, we had lost sight of the bigger picture, of valuing our newly acquired programming knowledge and enjoying our HSCC experience. Engulfed in the minute details of database linkages, I had led my team astray. Had I instead encouraged my team to build the entire application with dummy pages, we might have demonstrated our programming aptitude and felt content with our efforts. With one decision stemming from my poor lack of judgment, eight months of our toil had been rendered worthless.

As I ruminated over our performance in the following months, I noted that while mistakes are a part of life, we certainly had learned much from the experience. Practice does make perfect, and our team simply was not ready to compete against accomplished programmers: we were severely inhibited by our lack of programming experience. I was naturally disappointed with the news of our placement, but my rather embarrassing loss gave me the motivation to expand my programming skill set and the tenacity to adapt and implement various solutions.

2012 HSCC Team

As our newly woven team strove for contentment rather than accolades in the 2012 HSCC, success naturally followed suit such that we emerged as the third place winners and the year after secured first place in programming (second overall). If you learn from a loss, I discovered through the 2011 HSCC, you have not failed. As Richard Bach aptly concludes, "Losing, in a curious way, is winning."

National HSCC Silver Medalists (2013)

It had taken three years to truly implement the lessons from my failure, but I finally emerged victorious.

Once bitten, thrice shy, I suppose!

BDPA Los Angeles Announces Its 2012 National High School Computer Competition Team

L-R: Temitope Sonuyi (trainer), Pooja Chebolu, John Isaacs, Akindele Davies, Austin DeYoung, Trayer Harvey, John Malonson III (chapter president)

BDPA Los Angeles proudly announced the members of its team that will be representing the chapter and the city in the 2012 National BDPA High School Computer Competition (HSCC) championship to be held in Baltimore later this year. The 2012 national HSCC team is:

1. Pooja Chebolu, 10th grade, California Academy of Mathematics and Science
2. Akindele Davies, 11th grade, California Academy of Mathematics and Science
3. Austin DeYoung, 11th grade, California Academy of Mathematics and Science
4. Trayer Harvey, 11th grade, California Academy of Mathematics and Science
5. John Isaacs, 12th grade, St. Bernard High School

BDPA Los Angeles chapter completed a remarkable Student Information Technology Education & Scholarship (SITES) program that included a computer camp with 26 students from 7th grade to 12th grade. The students learned HTML, CSS, jQuery, PHP, and MySQL. The class was taught by Temitope Sonuyi and John Malonson III on the Cal-State Dominguez Hills campus. Eight of the students did enough to earn college credit.

BDPA Los Angeles chapter has high expectations for this year's team and looks forward to them bringing home the gold medal from the national championship! Many thanks to the parents, students and volunteer staff that helped to make this a memorable year for our west coast BDPA chapter.