Community Outreach: Inspiring Future Developers

What better way to spend a Saturday afternoon, then programming? For over 32 teams of high school students representing 17 different Chicago area high schools, including at least three all-female teams, ProCom 3.0 at Stevenson High School on Saturday March 3, 2017 provided an opportunity for kids to “geek out” and spend two and a half hours competing on some of the most challenging programming problems they've ever encountered. 

Reaching out to students at her alma mater, Zebra’s Robin West shared her experiences and expertise, giving a glimpse into the impact that Big Data and the Internet of things will have on national and international commerce and more importantly on job trends over the next several decades. Touching on her personal experiences, Robin noted what to consider in college development curriculum and what type of work they can expect in the professional world. Students were active and present, inquiring about such topics as what type of work they may receive initially, what they can expect on their first project, how to deal with customers and what are the challenges of working on teams and they certainly did not mind the Zebra beanie giveaways! Robin West remarked “ I had a lot of fun engaging with students and hope I have had some impact on the choices they make in the future  that reflect a little bit of what they have learned here today.” 

ProCom is a joint effort between members of the Chicago and Chicago Suburban CSTA Chapters to provide students with a fun, challenging, high-quality, and memorable experience on par with scholastic competitions in other disciplines that have been in place for several decades.  The Leadership Team for ProCom consists of Dave Hayes of Lane Tech (Chicago), Matt Fahrenbacher of Niles West High School, and Steve Svetlik of Stevenson High School.