More information on Chris:

Chris Jacocks - Chief Executive Officer, From Geek to Urban - Chris participated in the BDPA HSCC program as members of the national team trained by BDPA Middle Tennessee chapter in 2009 and 2010. Chris is now a graphics design major at The Art Institute. He attended the 2011 BDPA Technology Conference in Chicago as a summer intern with Deloitte. He is the CEO for his own clothing line … using the skills developed while in the HSCC program. Chris is the embodiment of our ‘classroom to boardroom’ message!

Wayne Hicks said about Chris’s interview..

All - The best quote from tonight’s show came from Chris Jacocks who said, “It’s cool to be smart!”

• Help students achieve academic success by assisting with homework.
• Introduce Students to different professional fields in technology
• Programing instruction and Competition Preparation

Technology Fields

• Systems Analyst
• Digital Marketing/Social Network marketing
• Operations Management/Project Management
• Programming
• Graphic/Web Design

Competition Preparation Topics

• Introduction in Technology
• Binary Numbers
• HTML
• JavaScript
• CSS
• PHP
• Advanced PHP
• BDPA History
• Server Technology/Networking

Christopher Jacocks (2007-2010) – Art Institute, Graphic Design Major
CEO/Graphic Designer – From Geek to Urban, Clothing Line
Deloitte Intern 2010

Cameron Johnson (2007-2010) – University of Tennessee – Chattanooga, Computer Science Major

CFO/Web Developer – From Geek to Urban, Clothing Line
Deloitte Intern, 2009-2010

Marques Tabb (2007-2011) – Tennessee Tech, Operations Management

Shayla Nightingale (2008-2009) – Art Institute, Web Design/Multimedia Design
HCA Intern 2009

Other Students that have attended our program have also been extremely successful.  More of our past team members/successes are below:

Kayla Nightingale (2008) – Austin Peay University
Tony Williams (2007-2008) – North Carolina Central University
Kelsee Buntin (2007-2008)– Western Kentucky University

On the first day there is an oral round robin of questions. In addition, there is a computerized examination using Quiz Factory software donated by LearningWare. Each student is given 15 minutes to answer as many questions as they can. Questions for the Oral and Computerized component cover a variety of computer fundamentals and BDPA history.

On the second day, each team is given a Program Specification for a typical business problem. They have 6 to 8 hours and one computer to analyze, design, program, and document a solution to the problem. In building their web application, the teams have a choice between the following technologies, Sun Microsystems Java Technology, Microsoft ASP, Open Source Software PHP, or Microsoft .NET. Students use these technologies in conjunction with SQL to retrieve data from a database and generate dynamic HTML content for display in a web browser. Each team is then required to present their solution to a team of judges.

The BDPA National High School Computer Competition, (HSCC), was founded in 1986 by Dr. Jesse Bemley, of Washington, D.C. What started as a two-team event between Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, Ga. has grown to near 30 teams of various high school students from chapters throughout the nation. It’s all designed to introduce our youth (entering 9th through 12th grades) to the field of Information Technology, encourage them to seek higher levels of education, and groom many of them to become our next generation of IT professionals.

Throughout the year, local chapters conduct training programs for the youth in their communities. These programs are designed to expose our youth to the concepts of computers and give them the expertise to develop web applications. Each chapter is able to send a team of 3 to 5 students to the National Conference to compete against teams from chapters all over the country.

Once at the National Conference, students are able to attend Workshops and Seminars covering topics related to Personal Development, Academic Development, Youth Entrepreneurship and Information Technology.

They will be able to participate in activities including, Corporate Sponsored luncheons and receptions, visits to educational places in the hosting city (i.e. museums), and networking evenings with IT professionals and students from around the country. On top of all this, they get to showcase their talents in the National Competition which consists of a timed computerized written exam, oral questions, and the development of a web application per specifications. If they feel creative, they can also participate in a T-Shirt Design Competition

In 2008, the Middle Tennessee BDPA chapter sent its first team of five students to compete at the National Conference. Since then we have competed in National Competitions in Atlanta, Raleigh, Philadelphia, and Chicago.