Leadership Academy Gives Inside Info On Technology Industry

By Tanjua Damon

For the second year in a row, two groups of Newtown High School students are participating in the Information Technology Leadership Academy held at Naugatuck Valley Community College under the direction of Education Connection.

The 13 participating students attend the academy one Friday a month for the entire day. Students began the program in October along with 150 other students from area schools and it will end with an expo on Saturday, April 26, at the Brass Mill Mall in Waterbury where the students will display the prototype gadgets they have researched and created during the program.

The Newtown students broke into two teams creating the “Hawk’s I” and the “Mercurial.” Both teams had to create a wireless capability gadget that is a personal security communication device that caters to the teenage audience. The Hawk’s I group created the health monitor, which monitors things such as a diabetic’s blood sugar. The company’s slogan is, “The people, the products, the company, the future.” The Mercurial group created a pen that records what a person is writing and is able to download to a computer. It also has a security button so unauthorized people cannot use it.

Each month since October the group would travel to NVCC to listen to guest speakers talk about technology as well as business. The academy is an introduction to the real world of running a business as well as learning about the ever-changing world of technology.

“I think it is really interesting. We got a lot of opportunities to learn about internships in IT jobs,” Lenora Thornton said. “It’s really interesting to learn about these areas of technology.”

Wireless capabilities are also researched and talked about during the academy, which opened the students’ eyes to all the business capabilities that can be explored through that technology.

“I’m interested in business, particularly marketing,” freshman Josh Tenenbaum said. “I have a long way to go, but I’ve been learning so much about technology that it can help me in the future with marketing.”

Newtown High School teachers Kristin Violette and Steven George advised the group this year. Both felt the students were given the opportunity to explore and try something they might not have otherwise been able to do in the regular classroom.

“This program links the school to industry. They learn about technology through the different speakers that come in,” Mr George said. “The competition aspect is also a good lesson so these students can understand the industry to build a product so that it can be marketed. There is a lot of team building as well.”

The students admit the more savvy one is about technology the easier some of the academy is to understand, but that should not keep any student interested in the aspect of technology away from attending the program.

“The students who don’t know about the industry or technology, it’s more difficult for them,” Jake Gotliboski, a senior said. “But it allows us to grasp concepts we didn’t understand. We are able to interact with different types of people and learn about the Wi-Fi [wireless] technology.”

Senior Mark Reid has spent time in front of the classroom at Newtown High School helping to teach fellow students Advanced Computer Applications. He enjoyed the hands-on atmosphere as well as the opportunity to create a prototype.

“It’s not like your regular class,” Mark said. You are more so in control.”

The students liked being able to meet students from other five participating schools as well. They found the academy helps them build teamwork skills, as well as gives them a real look at what it takes to think of something and make it come to fruition so people will buy it.

The academy is aligned with state and national curriculum standards. Currently a program is being worked on to allow the same information to be taught in a high school class, according to Ms Violette.

“I think it’s great for the students to meet other students. It increases creativity,” Ms Violette said. “It encourages creativity, invention, and thinking outside the box.”

The students that participated in the ITLA were Hawk’s I: Simon Censabella, Andrew Dutton, Ashley Klabonski, Amanda Klabonski, Jaime Willie, James Wiedemann, and Josh Tenenbaum; Mercurial: Mark Reid, Alicia Tolson, Jake Gotliboski, Ashley Gillespie, Lenora Thornton, and Eric Johnson. The students appreciated the assistance of Michael Mino of Education Connection and Craig Fellenstein, an IT director with IBM as well as all the speakers who spent time talking with them about the technology industry.

For more information about the program visit www.itacademy.org or contact Peg Ragaini in the Career Center at Newtown High School at 426-1915.