Rochester Post-Bulletin, 8/26/2017 (Kyle Croarkin, Anjali Donthi, Tiera Felder, Vedha Somashekar, Tristan Trejo)

Rochester Students Win National Computer Competition. Rochester Public School students took first place at the National High School Computer Competition in Cincinnati, Ohio, at the end of July.
Southern Minnesota's branch of the Black Data Processing Associates won the National BDPA High School Computer Competition, facing off against 13 others, with a team that included Kyle Croarkin, Anjali Donthi, Tiera Felder, Vedha Somashekar and Tristan Trejo. For the win, each member of the team received a $3,000 scholarship.

Rochester students attend the National Black Data Processing Associates High School Competition held in Cincinnati, Ohio at the end of July. From left to right (around the table: Vedha Somashekar (9th grade at Century), Tristan Trejo (Freshman at University of Minnesota), Kyle Croarkin (9th grade at Mayo), Anjali Donthi (9th grade at Century), Tiera Felder (9th grade at Century)

The two-day competition included a seven-hour programming project, followed by a written portion, which included about 130 questions on web technologies, programming languages, number conversion from decimal to hexadecimal, the history of Black Data Processing Associates, cyber security and more. Students don't know what they'll be tasked with creating before the competition. This year, it included creating a web application that would allow them to locate a car they were interested in purchasing, purchase the car with a loan and perform an analysis on the depreciation value over time.

Read the rest of the Post-Bulletin article.

The Milwaukee Times, 9/30/2016 (BDPA Milwaukee Computer Camp)

They are (from left, top row) Jalil Gibson, Alvin Cherry, Jeffery Simon, Noah
Aitch, (from left, bottom row) Isaiah Jones, Nadia Chestnut, Jayla Hopkins,
and Vendah Jones.

BDPA Milwaukee Chapter Hosts High School Computer Competition and Youth Technology Camp Awards Ceremony. On Thursday, September 22, 2016 BDPA Milwaukee Chapter celebrated the success of its High School Computer Competition and Youth Technology Camp participants with an awards recognition ceremony at MillerCoors. The Milwaukee chapter completed its 3rd year of operation by preparing nine students to participate and compete in the 2016 National BDPA High School Computer Competition in Atlanta, GA on August 10-13, 2017. BDPA’s goal is to assist school in giving students a solid computer foundation. Awards went to area high school students that participated in the Youth Technology Camp.

Click here to see the full article in The Milwaukee Times.

Bloomington Pantagraph, 8/29/2016 (Joel Johnson, Sidhearth Panda, Suraj Sunkara, Jordan Stipp)

From left are BDPA-CIL president Marcus Barbee, BDPA member Theonnie Shields, BDPA-CIL HSCC coordinator Joel Johnson, Normal Community HS students Sidhearth Panda, Suraj Sunkara and Jordan Stipp. The three teens placed in 3rd place in the national HSCC in Atlanta, GA.

NCHS Students Score Third in National Computer Competition. Three Twin City high school students showcased their technology and communication skills at the recent national High School Computer Competition (HSCC) in Atlanta, Ga., netting third place. Joel Johnson is the coordinator and instructor for the local HSCC club, hosted by Black Data Processing Associates Central Illinois Chapter, a non-profit organization.

“We recruit students from Bloomington-Normal high schools to learn at our training academy. The goal of the program is to encourage African Americans to get into IT (Information Technology), but we will educate any student that wants to learn,” said Johnson, who also works as a system analyst at State Farm.

The academy members meet three times a month, October through April. The students learn basic web page construction, java script and database creation for websites.

Read the full Bloomington Pantagraph article.

The Wildcat Roar, 9/23/15 (Jared Orange)

Jared Orange Competes in Code in D.C. Students came back to Westminster this year with many different, interesting stories. Summer seminars, Camp Westminster, and exciting vacations were only a few of the many tales told around the halls. Yet, one story has been mostly untold: a competition held in Washington D.C. for upcoming web designers (cough, hackers, cough cough). Jared Orange, senior, recently attended this prestigious competition with a group of other students in order to prove they have what it takes to be the coders of the future.

BDPA St. Louis HSCC Team

For those not familiar with this competition, the basic layout goes like this. Teams would have to design a webpage using different programs such as HTML (HyperText Markup Language), JavaScript, PHP, among others. The teams are selected by chapter. The chapter’s sponsor would monitor those who signed up and teach them different skills to use on the computer. At the end of the training period, those who were deemed good were selected to compete with the team.

The team came in sixth place overall, much to Orange’s irritation.

“We lost to teams smaller than us which was pretty bad,” he says. “There were a lot of technical difficulties. I don’t know why. You would kinda expect an IT-centered organization to be on top of their game but it was kinda disorganized.”

Despite the loss, Orange says he would participate in the competition again if given the chance.

“It was just fun,” according to Orange, “and I’m opening my mind to more programming. Now I know things like PHP and now I can do a lot of other cool stuff besides Java.”

Read the full Wildcat Roar article.

Rochester Post-Bulletin, 9/16/2014 (BDPA Southern Minnesota)

HSCC Team Award winners, from left: Isaac Gullickson, Prabhjot Singh, Leo Alfred, Preethiya Sekar and Scott Swensen.

BDPA Southern Minnesota Hands Out Awards, Scholarships. The Rochester chapter of a national technology nonprofit presented a series of scholarships and awards at its annual banquet Sunday.

The Black Data Processing Associates, which matches high school students and mentors of all races and gender, held its 15th annual Scholarship and Education Banquet at the Rochester International Event Center. Through an extensive list of mentors and volunteers, BDPA delivers IT to its members, strategic partners and the community, "from the classroom to the boardroom."

Under the theme of "Diverse Opportunities in the Age of Convergence," the group led by founder Betty Hutchins of Mayo Clinic honored its outstanding members and volunteers during an event that featured many local alumni of the BDPA program who are either in college or have gone on to successful careers.

Read the rest of the Rochester Post-Bulletin article.

Cincinnati.com, 9/11/2013 (Clarence Larcarte)

L-R: Hassani Harrigan, Hadiya Harrigan, Brian Pulliam and Kiese Wamba

BDPA Cincinnati students place 5th in the National High School Computer Competition (HSCC) Championship. The HSCC championships were held during the annual BDPA Technology Conference last month in Washington, D.C. This placement comes after placing 7th in 2012.

BDPA Cincinnati chapter president, Clarence Larcarte (Procter & Gamble), had this to say on the team’s success: “This is the culmination of months of hard work by the students and their instructors. I’m proud that Cincinnati is represented by such brilliant young minds and I know that these students have very bright futures ahead of them.”

Read the full Cincinnati.com article.

KTTC Rochester, 9/9/2013 (Herchran Singh, BDPA Southern Minnesota)

BDPA Southern Minnesota Award Scholarships. Students were recognized at the Black Data Processing Associates Southern Minnesota Chapter awards ceremony at Rochester's International Event Center on Sunday. BDPA is a non-profit organization of professionals working or interested in the IT industry. This year's High School Computer Science Competition team took home first place at the national technology conference in Washington DC last month. Team members were awarded scholarships at the ceremony.

2013 National BDPA HSCC Champions (L-R: Isaac Gullickson,
Preethiya Sekar, Prabhjot Singh, Herchran Singh and Daniel Sheppard)

"I joined because I wanted to learn about computers," said Herchran Singh, BDPA Scholarship Recipient. "Having the award is just a bonus, the knowledge is the real award. The scholarships that come along are just wonderful because they're so helpful. We do need them."

According to members, BDPA Southern Minnesota works nationally to foster relationships with leading companies in the IT industry.

Read the full KTTC Rochester article.

St. Louis American, 11/7/2012 (BDPA St. Louis, Toni Love)

Local Youth Place 2nd in National Computer Competition. A diverse group of students representing the St. Louis Chapter of the Black Data Processing Associates earned 2nd place in the High School Computer competition at the 2012 National BDPA conference held recently in Baltimore, Maryland. The High School Computer Competition is a national competition of students solving a business problem using web technology. Each St Louis student will receive a $1,000 scholarship.

"Students coming together from different economic, geographical, educational and ethnic backgrounds is diversity at its best," says Toni Love, BDPA’s coordinator.

Read the full article in the St. Louis American.

Eureka-Wildwood Patch, 10/5/2012 (James Fields, Toni Love)

Eureka Student Among St. Louis' Winning Team in National Computer Competition. Eureka High School student James Fields (shown in photo, 3rd from the left) recently competed, along with a group of students representing the St. Louis Chapter of the Black Data Processing Associates, at the 2012 National BDPA conference held in Baltimore, MD.

The St. Louis team earned second place in the BDPA's High School Computer competition, a national contest of students who are challenged with solving a business problem using web-based technology. Fields and the other St. Louis students each received $1,000 scholarships as a result of their achievement.

"Students coming together from different economic, geographical, educational, and ethnic backgrounds is diversity at its best," said Toni Love, BDPA’s coordinator and application development specialist for Ameren.

Read the rest of the Eureka-Wildwood Patch article here.

Rochester Post-Bulletin, 8/17/2012 (Mike Espey, Hassan Hassan, Melcon Hinds, Daniel Sheppard, Herchran Singh, Prabhjot Singh, Adwait Walimbe)

BDPA Southern Minnesota Students win at National Competition. BDPA Southern Minnesota students won two awards at the annual national conference in Baltimore last month. In the IT Showcase, a competition for college students from around the country, Adwait Walimbe (Southern Minnesota Chapter alumni) placed third.

The High School Computer Competition team, which included Mike Espey, Hassan Hassan, Daniel Sheppard, Herchran Singh and Prabhjot Singh, placed fourth.

"While our goal this year was to win, I'm most proud of our students for their resolve to compete at the highest level in web development programming," Hinds said. "Their commitment to spend three hours each Saturday between December and May should be applauded. The preparation, work ethic and teamwork that these students show throughout the year leading up to the competition, as well as time spend helping the next generation of students in the program, leave me in awe."

Read the full Post-Bulletin article.

Compuware Community Clicks, 8/13/2012 (Cameron Hughes, Austin Little, Charles McIntosh) )

BDPA Detroit Team Finishes in Top 10 in National Competition. It wasn’t easy, but they did it — with skill, hard work and determination. The BDPA Detroit team built an application from scratch, finishing in the top 10 in the National High School Computer Competition, Aug. 2-4 in Baltimore. Team members Austin Little, Charles McIntosh Jr. and Cameron Hughes were upbeat about the experience. Little, 17, of the University High School Academy in Southfield, was a second time participant in the competition. While he lamented spending lots of time fixing things as they built the application, he was positive about competing: “We learned a lot, and it will benefit us in the future,” he said.

Read the rest of the Compuware Community Clicks article.

Compuware Community Clicks, 8/2/2012 (Ron Bell, Cameron Hughes, Austin Little, Charles McIntosh II)

Detroit Computer Wizards Go for the Gold in National Competition. Develop another award-winning application. That’s what the team of three students from the BDPA Detroit chapter plan to do starting today at the National High School Computer Competition in Baltimore, MD. Twelfth graders Austin Little and Cameron Hughes, joined by eleventh grader Charles McIntosh II, will vie for the gold with 18 other teams from around the country.

Read more.

St. Louis American, 1/5/2012 (John Cooper, Oseyi Ikuenobe, Cherno Jallow, Tiffany Jones, Toni Love, Al Ware)

St. Louis Computer Team Finishes in the Top 10. Students representing BDPA St. Louis Chapter placed in top 10 in the High School Computer Competition at the 2011 National BDPA conference held in Chicago. In addition, one of the students, James Fields, came in 2nd place in the Xbox competition.

The students were sponsored by Monsanto Corporation.

Read the rest of the St. Louis American article.

Creating IT Futures Blog, 9/27/2011 (Khalia Braswell, Stephanie Brown, Julius Clark, David Gottlieb, Reginald Jamerson, Dennis Rankin)

Julius Clark

It's Time to Show IT Off. The thing is, if material success is important to a person, then a kid could do a lot worse than to follow a career in information technology (IT). For example, it was recently reported that mobile app developers are pulling in six figures — whether they had a college degree or not.

Six figures for someone in their 20s! Hey, that seems like rap star status to me.

Julius Clark thinks so, too. Clark is the president of the Charlotte (N.C.) Chapter of the Black Data Processing Associates (BDPA), a professional technology organization formed in 1975. I was introduced to Julius over the summer when Creating IT Futures Foundation partnered with BDPA's own foundation to award $10,000 in scholarships.

Read the full Creating IT Futures Blog post.

Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, 9/21/2011 (BDPA Twin Cities)

BDPA Twin Cities Place 5th at National Computer Competition. The Twin Cities Black Data Processing Associates (BDPA) Minnesota teams won first and fifth place at the 2011 National BDPA High School Computer Competition, which was part of the 2011 33rd Annual BDPA Technology Conference held August 3-6 in Chicago.

The members of the High School Computer (HSCC) team were Cedric Cyrus (Como HS), Samantha Spears (Woodbury HS), Jorian Wulf (St. Paul Central HS) and Douglas Callahan (St. Paul Central HS). The Twin Cities Chapter High School Competition Team took fifth place out of 45 teams. The Rochester team won first place, Detroit team placed second, Columbus, Ohio team placed third, and the Atlanta team placed fourth.

Read the rest of the  Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder article.

CompTIA Blog, 8/31/2011 (Stephanie Brown, Charles Eaton, Wayne Hicks)

Two Foundations Team Up to Provide Scholarships for Talented Minority Students. By the time she had graduated from Stanford University, Stephanie Brown had already completed internships with Fortune 500 companies Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and Deloitte. She was only 21. Getting connected with BDPA in high school put Stephanie Brown on a learning track that led to a managing stint at Microsoft.

Says Brown: “Here I had all these awesome role models. It was a turning point in my life.”

Brown attributes much of her success to an organization that has been quietly helping African American students succeed going on four decades. Today with chapters in more than 40 cities, the Black Data Processing Associates (BDPA) has been helping middle school and high school students develop interest and acumen in technology fields such as IT in which minorities (and women, for that matter) tend to be under-represented.

Read the full CompTIA Blog post.

Rochester Post-Bulletin, 8/15/2011 (BDPA Southern Minnesota)

Data Processing Group Continues Its Winning Ways. By any measure, they have become an almost dynastic presence in national high school computer competitions. This year has been no different. For the fifth consecutive year and sixth out of seven years, five Rochester students representing the Southern Minnesota chapter of the Black Data Processing Associates claimed first-place in a high school contest that featured 19 teams from across the U.S. The southern Minnesota team won with a score of 871 points, followed by Detroit's 807 points and Columbus (OH)'s 628 points. In three of the nine years that BDPA Southern Minnesota didn't win the competition, it came in second place.

Read the rest of the Rochester Post-Bulletin article.

Rochester Post-Bulletin, 8/12/2011 (BDPA Southern Minnesota)

Rochester Students Win National Computer Competition -- Again. BDPA Southern Minnesota stands for Black Data Processing Associates-Southern Minnesota. It's not the easiest name to remember, but the five high school students who represented the team at this year's national competition make it difficult to forget.

For the fifth consecutive year and sixth out of seven years, the Rochester team took first place in a national contest that measures computer skills. The highlight of the competition is a seven-hour programming project. This year, students were required to create a web application to allow customers to configure and purchase computer orders based on an inventory of electronic parts from multiple vendors.

Click here to read the rest of the Rochester Post-Bulletin article.

Cincinnati.com, 8/10/2011 (BDPA Cincinnati)

Cincinnati HSCC team with their coach Deborah Jackson

BDPA Cincinnati Takes Culturally Diverse Students to National High School Computer Competition Championship in Chicago. Stock market gyrations, debt ceiling debates and the worries over the upcoming Cincinnati Bengals football season have dominated local headlines in recent weeks. Few in our city were focused on the remarkable achievements of Cincinnati-area high school students in a national computer programming competition, or appreciate the training it takes to excel in this intellectual effort.

So the 13th-place finish of Cincinnati's team (out of 45 BDPA chapters) in the National High School Computer Competition (HSCC) Championship sponsored by BDPA didn't draw a lot of attention. But the four team members went through a comprehensive training program with the local BDPA chapter before they pitted their skills against other teams at the national BDPA technology conference in Chicago.

Read the rest of the Cincinnati.com article.

Rix Bits, 8/7/2011 (BDPA Columbus)

BDPA Columbus Earns 3rd Place in National Competition! The results are in! As we close out the 33rd Annual BDPA National Conference and High School Computer Competition, I’m proud to announce that the BDPA Columbus high school team scored THIRD PLACE this year out of 19 participating teams!

Read the rest of the Rix Bits article.