BDPA 2011 National Technology Conference

BDPA National Technology Conference - Register Now!
8/4/2011

When: 8/3/2011
08:00

Where: Hilton Chicago
720 South Michigan Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60605
United States

Contact: Pamela Sexton (conference@bdpa.org)

Charlie Perkins,
Chapter President
BDPA Southern Minnesota
cperky7@gmail.com

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Election Results - BDPA Southern Minnesota (2010-2012)

BDPA Southern Minnesota has earned it's place as one of the most respected chapters in BDPA nation. Through the great success of our signature Youth Computer Training Program (YCTP), we have gained much national respect. It is worth noting that our chapter has taken first place in the HSCC national competition in each of the past 3 years. Meeting the needs of our students is BDPA Southern Minnesota's primary value. We are thankful and grateful to each of our dedicated volunteers for supporting our mission "Advancing Careers from the Classroom to the Boardroom". Recently we held election of officers for the new board of directors.

Here's our 2010-2012 Leadership Team:

• President - Charlie Perkins (Mayo Clinic)


• President-Elect - Barbara Porter (Mayo Clinic)


• VP Finance - Julius Kwansa (Julius Business Services)


• VP Member Services - Toni Adafin (IBM)


• VP Member Management - Ray Ventura (IBM)


• VP Strategy & Planning - Betty Hutchins (Mayo Clinic)
  
• Immediate Past President - Nat Calvert (IBM)
  

We're planning for an exciting 2010! Have a safe and prosperous new year BDPA family!

Regards,

Charlie Perkins

President

BDPA Southern Minnesota Chapter

president@bdpasmn.org

BDPA Southern Minnesota Scolarship Recipient - Angela Porter

Angela Porter delivers a "Thank you" message via video during BDPA Southern Minnesota chapter's 10th Year Scholarship and Awards Banquet, Sunday August 16, 2009.

Angela's mom (Barbara Porter) accepted the scholarship in Angela's absence. Angela is attending classes at Howard University in Washington, DC

From the "Classroom to the Boardroom" - we wish Angela well!

Charlie Perkins,

President-elect,

BDPA Southern Minnesota

Message from Southern Minnesota Chapter President - Elect

The BDPA Southern Minnesota Chapter is celebrating 10 years of promoting professional development and administering student programs. Our goal is to help high school students gain knowledge, skills and competitive experiences in Information Technology. We are also committed to enhancing the services we provide in the Rochester community. We just returned from the National Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina as three-peat first place winners of the High School Computer Competition (HSCC) award. A great honor for our hard working students!


BDPA Southern Minnesota has much more in store, as we continue to build partnerships with stakeholders in our community.


Charlie Perkins, President-Elect
BDPA Southern Minnesota




Adwait Walimbe, Daniel Sheppard, Yaa Kwansa, James Arama, Ahmed Mahamad


ROCHESTER AREA STUDENTS WIN THIRD STRAIGHT NATIONAL COMPETITION!!!


Rochester area students won again at the National High School Computer Competition in Raleigh, North Carolina this past week. Black Data Processing Associates (BDPA) Southern Minnesota Chapter won for the third year in a row at the National High School Computer Competition that was held in Raleigh, North Carolina from August 4th thru August 8th. The team competed against 22 other teams from much larger cities across the nation including Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit and New York. The Southern Minnesota team, now having won the last four out of the five years, ranged in age from 14-18 and included students throughout the Rochester area school district. This year's championship team included: James Arama, Yaa Kwansa, Ahmed Mahamad, Daniel Sheppard, and Adwait Walimbe. These students earned their spot on the local competition team by obtaining the top scores among nearly 50 students from the local area who completed the rigorous 7 month training program. This training programming is totally organized and operated by volunteers.

The National Competition spanned 2 full days, including an oral and written round and followed by a 7 hour programming project. This year's project, which the teams had no advance knowledge of, required the students to write a web based application allowing potential investors to fill out a form to invest in a venture company and immediately determine potential return of investment, using programming languages such as Java, ASP, PHP, .NET in conjunction with MySQL, HTML and CSS. The Southern Minnesota team completed the programming project with the highest overall score, and 10% higher than 2nd place. Each student from the winning team received a $2500.oo scholarship from the National BDPA organization plus an additional $250.00 from the Southern Minnesota Chapter.

BDPA is a national non-profit organization that started in 1975. The organization offers professionals, executives, entrepreneurs and students a pathway from the classroom to the boardroom through education, mentoring, business networking and services that enhance innovation, technical skills, business savvy and personal growth. The local BDPA chapter for Southern MN is a non-profit organization that is celebrating it’s 10th year anniversary. It was started in 1999.

Please join us as we celebrate the championship team, all the students in the Youth Computer Training Program and area high schools & college BDPA Southern MN Scholarship recipients on Sunday, August 16th at the Doubletree Ballroom, University Hall at 5:30pm. The keynote speaker will be Corey Bell of TriFusion Technologies. Dinner tickets are $25 for students and $45 for adults.

The Youth Computer Training Program is held at Century High School each Saturday from December thru June. Registration for 2009 – 2010 will take place in November at Century High School for students and volunteers.

Thanks to all of partners and supporters for making this a reality. Special thanks to Mayo Clinic, Rochester ISD 535, IBM, Zack Garbow: Technical Director, Jongy Calvert: Administrator Director, BDPA Board of Directors, and the many volunteers/instructors, including: Toni Adafin, Brian Brownlow, Nat Calvert, Emily Dirks, Eltayeb Elzain, Sophia Farr, David Fowler, Vi Johnson, Chris Kundinger, Osman Omer, Marshall Sheppard and Ray Ventura.

For more information, please contact Toni Adafin at tadafin@gmail.com or visit the website at www.bdpasmn.org/home