Johnnie Jones III founded Make A Difference Youth Foundation in 1992 as a college bound organization for Chicago high school students. The organization was started to attempt to help inner-city youth gain an appreciation for education. Make A Difference Youth Foundation - Provides technology-oriented after school tutoring and extracurricular programs for elementary students and college prep for high school students from across Chicago. More than 150 students are served each week.
i.c.stars was formed in 1999 to develop 1,000 Community Leaders by 2020. We are a non-profit organization in Chicago for adults with a high school diploma or GED. Using project-based learning and full immersion teaching, i.c. stars provides an opportunity for change-driven, future leaders to develop skills in business and technology.
Cristo Rey Jesuit High School
Serving the Community Since: 1996
Program Highlights: The Cristo Rey Work Study Programs enable all students to work five days a month in entry-level jobs in Chicago firms to fund 65% of the cost of their education. Currently, 106 corporations participate in the Cristo Rey Corporate Internship Program (CIP). CIP combines two commonly used business concepts, employee leasing and job sharing.
Information Technology Exposure: Work Study Placement within Information Technology departments, students work among IT professionals, participate in project activity and are inspired to pursue careers in IT from this early interaction and visibility.
Barrington H.S. Engineering Program PLTW
Project Lead The Way (PLTW) offers a dynamic high school program that provides students with real-world learning and hands-on experience. Students interested in engineering, biomechanics, aeronautics, and other applied math and science arenas will discover PLTW is an exciting portal into these industries.
Computer Programming Alive and Well at Oak Park River Forest High School
After several years of declining enrollment and the eventual discontinuance of computer programming courses after the dot-com collapse, the program was revived in 2005. A former software engineer from the B2B eCommerce space, new to teaching, was hired to design and teach the curriculum. The programming classes started with 16 students in 2005 and have grown four-fold to over 60 students in 2009-2010.
For more information: http://mrallee.dyndns.org/techOverview/techOverview.xml
About the BDPA Chicago Education Banquet
The Education Banquet is a major networking event for members, students, educators, community leaders, corporate supporters, corporate sponsors, dignitaries and celebrities to meet and fellowship. The purpose of the banquet is to acknowledge the outstanding contributions of our student members, supporting and sponsoring corporations and community volunteers. This is the main fund raising event to support the chapter’s education program budget for the year.
About BDPA
Black Data processing Associates (BDPA) is a non-profit professional association founded in 1975 in Philadelphia, PA. BDPA has grown into a national organization with over 4,000 members and 50 chapters chartered throughout the United States. BDPA is the premier organization for African Americans in IT. Organization membership is open to all with expressed interest in the Information Technology industry regardless of race, sex, religious beliefs or national origin.
About BDPA Chicago Chapter
The Chicago Chapter of the National Black Data Processing Associates was chartered on March 15, 1986 as the 14th Chapter nationwide. The first monthly program meeting was held April 18, 1986. Since that time, the Chicago Chapter has consecutively sponsored a monthly program meeting, designed to assist membership in meeting their professional and personal goals. Since its inception, the Chicago Chapter has continued to deliver programs that are innovative, relevant and informative to its membership.
About BDPA Chicago Education Programs
For over 20 years, BDPA Chicago has been working to build a feeder pool of the next generation of African-American IT professionals while fostering the continuing professional development of its BDPA members. The BDPA Chicago offers community outreach programs at the elementary school and high school levels. This includes the Adopt-a-School, Adopt-a-Class, High School Computer Club and High School Computer Competition programs. This department arranges for facilities, books, equipment, instructors, and other resources in support of these programs.
The highlight activity for this department is the High School Computer Competition where a team of students undergoes intensive training and is sent to the National BDPA Conference where they compete for scholarship funds with teams from over 50 BDPA Chapters nationwide.
In 2006, the BDPA Chicago Chapter won 1st place in this prestigious competition!
2009 BDPA Chicago Education Banquet - Who's Attending