Dreams Keep Me Awake, 7/31/2013 (Khalia Braswell)

Khalia Braswell

White House Tech Inclusion Champion for Change. Watching this live broadcast was very inspiring! Fortunately, I was familiar with quite a few of the organizations on the panel including Black Girls Code, the National Center for Women In Technology (NCWIT) and Digital Undivided.

In 2008, I was a recipient of the Aspirations in Computing Award from the NCWIT. As a result of receiving this award and my involvement with the Black Data Processing Associates (BDPA) High School Computer Competition, (I was on the 2008 Charlotte team which placed 5th), I will be attending the BDPA Conference in two weeks in DC to sit on a panel for NCWIT!

Read the full Dreams Keep Me Awake blog post.

YouTube, Curtis Jenkins (7/29/2013)

DeVry University Graduation Keynoter. Curtis Jenkins continues to grow as a leader, professional and entrepreneur. He extended his uplifting message to the 2013 graduating class of DeVry University in Philadelphia, PA. Here is the video of his graduation speech.

Cincinnati.com, 7/29/2013 (Hadiya Harrigan)

Hadiya Harrgan

BDPA Partners with Luxottica to Sponsor a High School Student Internship. BDPA Cincinnati announced today that it will partner with the Luxottica group in Mason, OH to provide a high school student with the opportunity to gain experience in a local IT Department. Luxottica has been involved with BDPA Cincinnati for the past several years as a corporate sponsor. This effort will continue to build a strong partnership between these two groups.

Alicia Tidwell, diversity leader for Luxottica Group says, “We view the partnership as a viable resource to source top talent. Our goal is to build a pipeline with BDPA to begin bringing in associates to fill key rolls within our organization.”

Hadiya Harrigan, senior at Seven Hills High School, started her summer internship last week. She will work throughout the summer to implement 300 computers across the school network at Withrow High School. She will be installing software, providing training, and assisting the administration with pre and post conversion support. This summer internship will allow Hadiya to develop her personal and technical skills on an important project for this school and our community.

Read the full Cincinnati.com article.

Houston Business Journal, 7/17/2013 (Craig Brown)

Craig Brown, PhD | People on the Move. Craig Brown, Ph.D., senior partner and CEO of STEM Resource Partners, has been named a winner in The InfoWorld 2013 Technology Leadership Awards' technology deployment category.

Read the full Houston Business Journal article.

NOTE: Dr. Brown is National BDPA vice president.

Cincinnati.com, 6/30/2013 (Hadiya Harrigan, Brian Pulliam)

Hadiya Harrigan

Brian Pulliam

'Reaching for Stars' Leaders Honored. The ninth annual Images of Excellence Corporation’s Reaching for the Stars program Thursday honored 10 high school students and recent graduates during a ceremony at Cincinnati State College. Sallie Elliott, director of the Images of Excellence Corporation, said the ceremony was designed to identify, salute and create awareness of young leaders in Cincinnati's Black community.

“The Awards create a linkage for these young aspirants with established and accomplished leaders in their professions and in the community,” Elliott said. “We want to encourage them to come back to Cincinnati after their educational careers are over and help make Cincinnati great.”

BDPA Cincinnati student members Hadiya Harrigan and Brian Pulliam were both honored with this prestigious award. Read the full article here.