IT Academy prepares students for life
Author: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Friday, May 27, 2011
Gallery (click any photo to view the gallery)
These prize-winning teams earned summer trips to Philadelphia and Boston. Front, from left: Ethan Doll, Minh Tran and Oscar Maldonado. In back: Eric Ebner and Nick Graczyk.
While not everyone in Bryan Station High’s Academy of Information Technology will wind up in that career field, the students do recognize the broad value of these focused classes.
“All the things we’ve learned will eventually help us in the business world,” said Ethan Doll, who appreciates the specialized electives, access to new technology and the chance to integrate it in his required courses, too.
He and fellow sophomores Minh Tran and Oscar Maldonado have, in fact, already raised the bar for Fayette County Public Schools: They are the district’s first students ever invited to present at the International Society for Technology in Education’s summer conference, meeting in Philadelphia. This honor follows their “Best in State” award in the high school division of the Student Technology Leadership Program’s year-end showcase.
Meanwhile, seniors Eric Ebner and Nick Graczyk brought home an STLP first prize in the gaming design category and will head to Boston for a summer camp sponsored by MIT, among others.
“We’ve all had experience making projects and know what succeeds,” Nick said in describing how the IT Academy prepared them for the rigorous competition.
Greg Drake, coordinator of instructional technology for FCPS, praised their efforts.
“Because of these awards, Bryan Station’s Academy of Information Technology students have broken new ground in building their own future and the future of the IT program,” he said.
This program is part of the National Academy Foundation, whose students complement their core academic studies with a focus on one of these career themes: Finance, Hospitality & Tourism, Information Technology, or Engineering. Bryan Station’s is the only NAF academy of any type in Kentucky.
Current juniors will be the first group to complete high school in the 4-year-old academy, where IT students are also grouped in their regular classes like English and science.
“The neat part is the cohort educational concept because it allows them to build a community,” said STLP adviser Brett Owens.
IT program coordinator Amy Johns agreed.
“In a high school of 2,000 kids, they have something smaller to relate to. It’s a culture/family type of atmosphere where they get to know the teachers and the teachers know them,” she said.
The IT Academy is open to anyone at Bryan Station, as well as out-of-area applicants. The four-year program offers electives focused on the skills needed in IT careers, and it embeds technology and other workplace skills in their core-content classes.
Courses cover such areas as Web design, digital video and media, programming, networking, database design and graphic design. Students also have a chance to participate in a paid internship after their junior year, as well as field trips, mentoring and community projects.
“The idea is to be broad rather than deep to give kids exposure to a wide variety of IT and a wide range of skills they’ll be able to use regardless of what they do,” Johns said. “A lot of our students just take the skills and apply them to pharmacy or communications or nursing.”
Some also find that the experience opens up new possibilities they might not have considered. Oscar, for instance, thought he wanted to study music but has since turned an eye toward biomedical engineering.
“Ever since I started the academy, it’s changed my views around,” he said.
The prize-winning projects
The sophomores: Ethan Doll, Oscar Maldonado and Minh Tran
Their project, Microsoft MultiLanguage Office, involves developing training materials in several languages to teach Microsoft Office skills to ESL students.
“We use technology in every single class, so the language barrier can affect their grades,” Ethan said. “Instead of falling behind, they can catch up fairly quickly,” Minh added.
So far, the three boys have concentrated on presenting Microsoft Word instructions in Spanish through PowerPoints and videos converted to the popular platform Flash.
“You’re reading and also hearing us talk about it,” as Minh explained.
The seniors: Eric Ebner and Nick Graczyk
This duo is invited to the Game for Good Design Camp – a collaboration of Children’s Hospital Boston, Microsoft, FableVision, the MIT Education Arcade and the Learning Games Network. At the week-long camp, they will work alongside professionals to explore the elements of effective game design.
Their STLP prototype, called “Art Raider,” grew out of Eric’s studies in AP Art History. In the video game, a security guard investigating museum thefts must solve clues to find the missing artifacts.
“Each time the guard leaves the museum, he’s taken back in time,” Eric explained, noting there are different levels such as Ancient Near East and Egypt.
Throughout the game, the guard – or the player – learns about the art, culture and architecture of that era.