BDPA is pleased to announce the winners of the first annual FleetBoston Financial High School Computer Competition Challenge Grant. FBF pledged $50,000 funding to the four chapters demonstrating the best preparation for this year's competition. The four winning chapters hail from Albany NY, Boston MA, Hartford CT and Providence RI.

The Winning Teams

The grant criteria focused on project planning and budgeting with a 5-point system for each of the seventeen components.

The winner of the Pewter Grant of $5,000 is Albany, New York whose strengths were in the professionalism of their project plan and the completeness of their implementation plan. The winner of the Bronze Grant of $10,000 is Boston-Metrowest in Massachusetts. The Boston proposal affected the greatest number of students and secured the greatest number of instructors with the most diversity in the employers of instructors. The winner of the Silver Grant of $15,000 is Providence, Rhone Island who had the greatest number of funding sources planned, an excellent implementation plan with exceptional follow-through in scheduled class assessments and project evaluations. The winner of the Gold Grant of $20,000 is the Greater Hartford, Connecticut Chapter. Hartford scored close to perfect in every component and scored the highest of all chapters in its Risk Analysis and Mitigation plans.

The BDPA National High School Computer Competition, (HSCC), was founded in 1986 by Dr. Jesse Bemley, of Washington, D.C. What started as a two-team event between Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, Ga. has grown to near 30 teams of various high school students from chapters throughout the nation. It's all designed to introduce our Youth (entering 9th through 12th grades) to the field of Information Technology, encourage them to seek higher levels of education, and groom many of them to become our next generation of IT professionals.

Throughout the year, local chapters conduct training programs for the youth in their communities. These programs are designed to expose our youth to the concepts of computers and give them the expertise to develop web applications. Each chapter is able to send a team of 3 to 5 students to the National Conference to compete against teams from chapters all over the country.

Once at the National Conference, students will be able to attend Workshops and Seminars covering topics related to Personal Development, Academic Development, Youth Entrepreneurship and Information Technology. They will be able to participate in activities including, Corporate Sponsored luncheons and receptions, visits to educational places in the hosting city (i.e. museums), and networking evenings with IT professionals and students from around the country. On top of all this, they get to showcase their talents in the National Competition which consists of a timed computerized written exam, oral questions and the development of a web application per specifications. If they feel creative, they can also participate in a T-Shirt Design Competition.

BDPA is the premier organization for African Americans in the Information Technology (IT) industry. For over 28 years, BDPA has been a global member focused technology organization. BDPA remains committed to delivering IT excellence to our members, strategic partners and community. BDPA has 3,100 members in 53 chapters across the country.

Black Data Processing Associates

Black Data Processing Associates

More from Black Data Processing Associates