Industry execs deliver inspirational career messages to inner-city youth

BOWIE, MD -- Bowie State University's Computer Science Department hosted an annual APBi (Advance Planning Briefing for Interns) meeting during Father's Day Weekend with inner-city youth from BDPA, JEF (Joint Educational Facilties) and UPO (United Planning Organization). Industry executives from CSC, FireEye, Splunk, and a U.S. Navy Flag Officer, spent Saturday morning to discuss exciting STEM-IC (Science.Technology.Engineering.Math--Intel & Cyber) career opportunities, challenges, and requirements across emerging industry sectors.

Enoch Long (third from left), Principal Security Strategist at Splunk, joins Rear Admiral Will Metts, U.S. Navy, Deputy Chief, Tailored Access Operations at NSA; Keith Scott, Federal Program Manager and Special Projects for FireEye (second from left); Dr. Jesse Bemley, High Performance Computing (HPC) Programs, Joint Educational Facilities (JEF), and other corporate execs in APBi candid round table discussions with area youth, parents, and faculty.

Above, local BDPA student members preparing for upcoming intense regional and national High School Computer Competition (HSCC) rounds continued their training in the District of Columbia near the Verizon Center at the DC Courts Training Facility. Under the supervision of Mr. Lou Shack, BDPA Members and area IT Professionals from DC Courts, Concur, and Northrop Grumman conduct application development training and presentation workshops every weekend with HSCC teams. Training for the national HSCC scholarship rounds are conducted on Saturday's and Sunday's in the District after the 4th of July weekend. 

Tech Summits with STEM-IC overtones are hosted each year by Bowie State University's Computer Science Department with organizations such as BDPA, JEF, and UPO in direct support of our nation's 


CNCI 


(
Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative)
 
goals. This year's meetings also included an IT Showcase (ITSC) preview with local high school and college students. Dr. Daryl Stone, Professor, Computer Science, chaired the meeting.

Students and mentors adjourned to a local establishment for the traditional "Pancake Brunch" and APBi mixer co-hosted by IHOP.   Anthony Lawson (below, left), one of this year's featured IT Showcase (ITSC) presenters, won a Google Chromebook door prize from National BDPA's DC Chapter during the mixer. 

For the 35th Annual National BDPA Technology Conference and Career Expo, August 13-17, 2013 at the Washington Hilton, Anthony's topic will be: "Network Security Engineer: What is IT?"  

Visit BDPA.org for more details and pre-registration. 

Photos © 2013 bdpatoday