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.

Rochester Post-Bulletin, 6/7/2013 (Herchran Singh)

John Marshall High School Top Seniors. Herchran Singh, daughter of Gurninderjit Singh and Surinder Kaur, was a participant in science fair, Business Professionals of America, Black Data Processing Associates, Computer Programming, Speech, National Honors Society and mentorship at the Mayo Clinic Cardiovascular Research Lab.

She was involved in track, swimming and Indian Dance. She is a National Honors Society president, HSCC project manager, Punjabi School principal, BPA president, Society of Women Engineers Award, National Latin Exam, Rochester Regional Science Fair, swimming, track, speech, Business Professionals of America and NCWIT Aspirations in Computing Award. Community service includes Punjabi School, National Honors Society, tutoring, Habitat for Humanity, school carnivals and Christmas Anonymous. She plans to major in biology and minor in computer science at Gustavus Adolphus College.

Read the full Post-Bulletin article.

CollegeRecruiter.com, 4/24/2013 (Herchran Singh)

Herchran Singh

CollegeRecruiter.com CEO Faith Rothberg M.C.’s Women in Computing Awards for High Schoolers. Last week, Faith Rothberg, CEO of CollegeRecruiter.com, served as the Master of Ceremonies for an awards ceremony designed to encourage young women to enter the highly rewarding career fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).

The National Center for Women in Information Technology (NCWIT) Aspirations in Computing awards ceremony was held on April 18, 2013 at the Unisys Corporation data center in Eagan, Minnesota. The ceremony was organized by Advance IT Minnesota, the high-tech talent incubator run by the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) system. There were six winners and five runners-up in the first annual Minnesota Aspirations for Women in Computing award for high school students. Winners from across the state were selected based on their interests, accomplishments, and community involvement in computing and technology, as well as for their aspirations in computing and technology-related fields.

NOTE: One of the six winners was BDPA Southern Minnesota student member Herchran Singh of Rochester; senior at John Marshall High School.

Read the rest of the CollegeRecruiters.com article.

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.