Rochester Post-Bulletin, 8/5/2010 (Zack Garbow)

Programming Students Pick Up 4th National Title. Can you say dynasty?  A team of Rochester high school students representing the local Black Data Processing Associates chapter chalked up its fourth straight national championship in a programming competition in Philadelphia last weekend.

"They have become kind of a dynasty," said Elise Pemberton of Rochester, parent of a former BDPA participant.

Read the full Post-Bulletin article here.

Rochester Metro News, 8/2/2010 (Zack Garbow)

Local Students Win National Award. Five Rochester high school students just won first place at a national computer competition. The students are part of a national organization called Black Data Processing Associates, or BDPA.

There are about 60 students from southeast Minnesota who meet every Saturday for eight months of the year. At the end of the eight months, they select five of the top students to go to the national competition.
The BDPA helps minorities succeed in technology careers.

"In the school system today, there isn't enough computer science particularly to really prepare the workforce for what's needed," says Zack Garbow, an instructor for BDPA.

The Rochester team competed against 23 other teams across the country. Each of the students won a $2500 college scholarship, as well as a laptop from Hewlett Packard for coming in First Place.

KTTC Rochester, 8/10/08 (Zack Garbow)

BDPA National Competition. A few other local high school students have reason to brag this afternoon.Five students from the Black Data Processing Associates traveled to Atlanta, Georgia this past week for the National BDPA High School Computer Competition. The group returned to Rochester today...

Read the full media story here. View the full video clip here.