Wordless Wednesday: 2006 National BDPA HSCC Silver Medalists (Southern Minnesota)

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• Rochester Post-Bulletin, 10/1/2013 (BDPA Southern Minnesota)
• KTTC Rochester, 9/9/2013 (Herchran Singh, BDPA Southern Minnesota)

Wordless Wednesday: 2011 National BDPA High School Computer Competition Champions

Wordless Wednesday: National BDPA High School Computer Competition Champions (Southern Minnesota, 2011)

SOURCE: BDPA Foundation Photostream on Flickr

BDPA Southern Minnesota SITES Program (2013)

One of the most remarkable achievements in BDPA history comes from our BDPA Southern Minnesota chapter located in Rochester, MN. This chapter has one of the smallest population bases with the BDPA family, however, the chapter has managed to win seven of the past nine High School Computer Competition (HSCC) national championships. Only BDPA Chicago (2006) and BDPA Atlanta (2012) HSCC teams managed to spoil the winning streak by our Southern Minnesota chapter.

Part of the success formula for BDPA Southern Minnesota is the effort that they place in recruiting middle- and high-school students for their computer camp. The chapter's computer camp creates educational opportunities for a diverse range of students. Computer camp students pack the computer lab each Saturday between December and May. The teamwork and enthusiasm displayed by both students and a dozen corporate volunteers from Mayo Clinic and IBM is truly awe inspiring. Computer camp course topics include HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, My SQL and builds towards a goal of attaining high school credit to reward the students for their effort and education.

First Row: Ashwini Walimbe, Surinder Kaur, Bernard Bampoh, Gord Singh
Second Row: Jongy Calvert, Victoria Bampoh, Sam Johnson, Anushri Walimbe, Gurasis Singh
Third Row: Brian Brownlow, Lillian Shiraku, Nana Kyei-Baffour, Rhea Kohli, Herchran Singh, Prabjhot Singh
Fourth Row: Ohema Kyei-Baffour, Maurine Macharia, Phillip Johnson, Oreoluwa Odeyinka, Keerthi Manikonda
Fifth Row: Jacob Schoeneck, Quincy Bush, Tanvi Kohli
Sixth Row: Toni Adafin, Victor Chuol, Brandon Finch
Seventh Row: Marc Ficalora, Isaac Gullickson, Scott Swensen
Top Row: Kalisha Hoskins, Braedon Fremling, Austin Berg

Not pictured: Haran Arama, Oslyn Collins, Jevonte Hinds, Harmanpreet Kaur, Shannon Miller, Preethiya Sekar, Daniel Sheppard, Tristan Trejo, Ghanashayam Unnikrishman, Sandra Cabral, Nat Calvert, Kalyan Kattamuri, Jayasri Narra, Marshall Sheppard, Aparna Velamala

2013 National High School Computer Competition Champions: BDPA Southern Minnesota

This Week in BDPA (August 25-31, 2013)

BDPA offers strong programs in 46 cities around the nation. Are you taking advantage of these programs? Here is a weekly preview of upcoming events gathered from the centralized BDPA calendar :

• Aug 25: BDPA Chicago - Seminar, 'Virtualization, Linux, Security and Cisco'
• Aug 26: National BDPA - Conference Call, 'Membership Management Vice Presidents'
• Aug 26: BDPA Foundation - BDPA iRadio Show, 'Interview: 2013 HSCC Champions'
• Aug 27: BDPA Foundation - BDPA iRadio Show, 'Interview: Ken Wilson (BDPA Cleveland)'
• Aug 28: BDPA Washington DC - Networking, 'BDPA @ Microsoft Store'

Please let us know of other BDPA events 

that we may have missed! 

You can always find BDPA programs, services or networking activity online at places such as:

• BDPA Facebook Group
• BDPA Foundation Facebook Page
• BDPA Foundation Twitter Account
• BDPA LinkedIn Network Group

BDPA supports your efforts for career advancement in the IT industry. Our hope is that you find reasons to provide tax-deductible support to our Causes, our HSCC Scholarship Funds or Your Causes! We encourage all BDPA leaders to take advantage of the centralized BDPA Groupsite Calendar to post your upcoming events.

Bernard Bampoh (Southern Minnesota) Wins 1st Annual Lockheed Martin Scholarship for BDPA Students

BDPA president Monique Berry, Bernard Bampoh, BDPA founder Earl Pace

BDPA awarded the first annual 'Lockheed Martin Scholarship for BDPA Students' at the 2013 BDPA Technology Conference held in Washington DC. The winner was a remarkable young man - Bernard Bampoh - who is a rising senior at Century High School in Rochester, MN. Bernard participated in the BDPA Youth Technology Camp (YTC) as a member of the BDPA Southern Minnesota chapter.

The Lockheed Martin Scholarship for BDPA Students encourages a current or rising high school senior to pursue a STEM-based college curriculum. The student must be a registered participant in the annual YTC. The decision on scholarship winners would be two-fold.

First, we accepted nominations from each chapter that is sent a YTC student to the conference. The survey was character-based and focused on areas such as behavior, preparation, responsibility, communication, attendance, team ethic and integrity.

Second, the scholarship winner must demonstrate onsite excellence during the onsite YTC workshops and activities.

Bernard submitted this video vignette as part of his scholarship application package to share his interest in STEM education as well as his desire to become our first BDPA-Lockheed Scholar.



The scholarship is administered by the BDPA Education and Technology Foundation.

BDPA Member on the Move: Adwait Walimbe (Wal-Mart)

BDPA prides itself on providing programs, scholarships and services that help young people move from 'classroom to the boardroom' in the IT industry. BDPA Southern Minnesota member Adwait Walimbe is the latest example of this tagline being turned into reality.

Adwait joined BDPA while still in junior high school. He participated in the local chapter's Student Information Technology Education & Scholarship (SITES) program. In fact, Adwait is the only student in over 30 years of BDPA history to be part of the winning team in National BDPA High School Computer Competition (HSCC) championship for FIVE YEARS.

Adwait used his college scholarship winnings to attend the University of Minnesota. During his college career he participated in the BDPA IT Showcase held in Baltimore last year.   This was when Adwait sat amongst a large crowd of IT professionals to listen to the career insights delivered at an executive symposium by the keynote speaker Ben Hasan, an IT executive with Wal-Mart.

"That's where I met Ben. I followed up with him later at the conference, and over the next few months he convinced me to join Wal-Mart," said Adwait.

Adwait (top-left) listens intently to Ben Hasan's presentation

Adwait accepted his first full-time job in the IT industry with Wal-Mart last month. He is now a Strategy Manager for the largest retailer in the world.

Ben Hasan is happy with the fact that Adwait is beginning his career with Wal-Mart.

"We are really excited to have Adwait on the team!!!", said Mr. Hasan.

Adwait Walimbe is the 'future face of technology'. Wal-Mart knows it. BDPA is proud of Adwait and we look forward to following his career over the coming years!   I encourage all BDPA members reading this post to share some love with our amazing Mr. Walimbe!

Bemley Scholar Ahmed Mahamad Graduates with Health Sciences Degree from University of Minnesota

BDPA Education and Technology Foundation (BETF) is proud to recognize Bemley Scholar Ahmed Mahamad for his successful graduation from the University of Minnesota (Rochester) with a bachelor of sciences degree in Health Sciences.

Ahmed has a powerful BDPA legacy. He is one of the rare students in history to win three (3) national BDPA High School Computer Competition (HSCC) championships. He won those three championships in 2007, 2008 and 2009 as a member of the HSCC teams trained by BDPA Southern Minnesota chapter. As a result of his excellence Ahmed earned multiple college scholarships including the Dr. Jesse Bemley Scholarship awarded by BETF to support his educational efforts at the University of Minnesota.

Ahmed joined with two other HSCC alums (James Arama and Adwait Walimbe) in 2010 to create the StartLounge. StartLounge was a visual, social interface that engaged users with Facebook integration to let them preview Facebook news feeds and photos.

As a college student Ahmed continued to support his BDPA family. He was a student instructor for BDPA Southern Minnesota for a number of years and he was a participant in the 2010 BDPA IT Showcase held in Philadelphia PA. His research topic during that year's IT Showcase was entitled, 'Robotics Bioinformatics and Medicine' [paper / poster].

Ahmed is the 'future face of technology'. His graduation this weekend from the University of Minnesota is simply another step in his personal quest to rise from 'the classroom to the boardroom'. Whenever BETF donors or volunteers begin to waiver in our commitment to support of BDPA programs, scholarships and services we merely need to remember the example of Ahmed Mahamad. Today, I ask all of you to join BETF in tipping our caps to this talented young man ... and if your heart tells you ... please help us provide more college scholarships in the future for other young 'uns like Ahmed!

Congratulations Ahmed ... University of Minnesota graduate, Class of 2013!

Wordless Wednesday: 2010 National BDPA HSCC Champions (Southern Minnesota)

SOURCE: BDPA Foundation Flickr Photostream

Top 10 BDPA Chapters (Membership, Nov 2012)

The lifeblood of any nonprofit association is its membership. Success with organizations like BDPA can be distilled into three words: MEMBERSHIP. MEMBERSHIP. MEMBERSHIP.

If you accept that truth then it is worth the time to honor those local BDPA chapters who are demonstrating success in their efforts to recruit and retain members. Let's take a look at the ten largest chapters in BDPA-Nation:

1. Chicago - president, Pamela Sexton
2. Atlanta - president, Felicia Jones
3. Philadelphia - president, Eileen Gadsden
4. New Jersey - president, Goldie Bonney
5. Cincinnati - president, Clarence Larcarte
6. New York - president, Renetta English
7. Los Angeles - president, John Malonson
8. Dallas - president, Stacy Stewart
9. Southern Minnesota - president, Melcon Hinds
10. Washington DC - president, Perry Carter

The top two chapters - Chicago and Atlanta - are members of the 'BDPA Century Club', which means that they have over 100 members. One of the common denominators for each of these chapters is that they place a high premium on the delivery of quality programs and services to their members. These chapters work hard to ensure that there is a strong return on the $100 investment that each member makes thru annual dues.

Historical perspective - Top 10 BDPA Chapters (Nov 2009)

What are your thoughts about the value of BDPA membership? What can your local chapter do to improve the value-proposition for you on a personal or professional level?