Local teens Get IT!

Last Wednesday night, 24 public, private, and home-taught high school students, along with their parents from Warren County, gathered at a packed (roughly 65 attendees) Samuels Public Library conference room to hear what was in store for them:  a newly formed information technology club for local teens interested in the fast-moving world of IT.

The club is aptly named “This is IT!” and is a pilot program running every other Wednesday through the current school year. The goal is for a full school year-long program to start in September if the results of this pilot program match expectations. Based on one parent’s comment immediately after attending the first class with her teenage son who stated, “This was amazing and far exceeded my expectations,” we are well on our way to achieving a much-needed goal in this community – helping to prepare our children for a bright future.

Mr. Shane Goodwin, a member of the This is IT! Leadership Team and The Wednesday Group kicks off the first night’s meeting by discussing the agenda for the evening before a packed Samuels Library conference room.

This club will explore various aspects of IT and include both hands-on experiences to underscore lessons taught, then will culminate in June with an Escape Room adventure using, as clues, items learned throughout the class year.  The goal is to mix fun and learning to enhance the student’s classroom experience.

“This is IT” is a project of The Wednesday Group, a small group of local citizens who work on unmet needs in Warren County, including food security, shelter, and increasing educational opportunities.

To support this effort, several local IT firms happily joined them, including ACOM, Queen Consulting & Technologies, 9th Way Insignia, and Front Royal Premier Copiers, along with several local volunteers, who are providing professional technical training, in conjunction with ENSCO Inc. ENSCO is a national engineering, science, and advanced technology firm, with headquarters in Springfield VA which had 9 employees, including the President of the firm, attend virtually from multiple locations across the country. Also supporting this endeavor is 501-C(3) entities like C-CAP and Samuels Public Library, which provide critical support for this ambitious project.  Michelle Ross, the Director of the Library and a member of the This is IT! leadership team, was more than happy to offer their facility to support this endeavor.

The evening started out with a presentation from Chris Depa, an ENSCO cyber defense specialist in Colorado Springs, who, in his keynote speech entitled “From Gamer to Cyber Defender,” related his work experience starting as a teenage professional gamer participating in competitions across the country, traveling by private jets, who was approached to take that knowledge into the IT world and put it to use.  That included stints at the CIA and some of the country’s largest IT companies before joining Ensco.  Along the way, he designed an algorithm that identified a serial killer who was captured and convicted. One of his key points was the rapidly exploding job market for workers with IT expertise – with numbers reaching as high as 3-4 million new jobs over the next five years.  It should be noted, as Shane Goodwin stated in his welcoming of ENSCO to the event, they were recently selected as one of the top 100 companies in the country for their internship programs for high school and college students, and we are very excited to have them as a member of our team.

Due to the generosity of several local citizens and ENSCO Inc., This is IT! club members received T-shirts, hats, and computer accessories in recognition of their being selected, along with a new laptop computer for use during this pilot program. They will also have opportunities to earn scholarships to local trade schools and community or 4-year colleges, internships with local and potentially remotely with out-of-the-area firms, and work on projects to help local nonprofits increase their social media presence.

It is especially important that citizens understand that students had to apply online to attend by answering several questions, getting their parent’s approval, and having that application approved by a selection committee.  Along the way, that same approach will be used for internships, scholarships, and achievement awards.  Nothing will be given; it will be earned to include the technical aspects of the job and the critical element of understanding how to prepare a resume, submit a job application that will be selected, and ultimately succeed in a job interview.

Robert Adanitsch, CEO of ACOM, utilizes his IT experience to instruct kids on what to expect
over the next several months. Robert will also serve as one of the instructors for the program.

When asked, Nathan Scott, the CEO of one of the firms supporting this effort, stated: “… one cannot understate the importance of an effort of this nature to this community.  Not only does it give the students the rare opportunity to hear from both local and national level experts in this field, but it also allows them, through both in-class instructional and hands-on training to expand their horizons in this marketplace.  Another aspect of this program is that it allows local firms, like ours, to hire local talent … hard to beat that!”

At the end of the day, the expectation is to further our teenager’s ability to seek out jobs that can be performed locally as well as outside our area.  One parent in attendance said, “I never expected to see anything like this in Warren County.”

(Information Courtesy of the Wednesday Group)