Why Should You Be a Techie Camp Instructor?

Use your computer science and engineering skills to educate, excite and empower children. Teach elementary and middle school kids about programming, robotics, or web development. Earn up to $1000 in a week. Each of these is a reason why you should be a Techie Camp Instructor with Tech Corps. Each summer, Tech Corps employs camp instructors from a myriad of backgrounds including professors, PhD candidates, undergraduate and graduate students, and technology industry professionals for our week-long  Techie Camps. Techie Camp instructors inspire and nurture the creativity found within the 20 elementary or middle school students they have in a session. In addition, they strive to remove the limitations generally placed on children and push them to achieve their full potential. Believe it or not, 3rd graders create projects that range from designing and writing code for various games, interactive arts and animations to building and programming a robot. Yes, children as young as eight years old are capable of being the designers and creators of technology rather than basic users of it. Okay, what’s in it for you? Aside from the obvious financial gain, you also have the opportunity to give back to the community; network with other instructors and parents (who are professors and tech professionals); and look at problems from different approaches and perspectives. A former Techie Camp instructor raved about how working with Tech Corps “ended up giving me a lot to talk about in interviews for the full-time extended internship I have now.” This could be your story too, or you can make your own. The choice is yours! So, why should you become a  Techie Camp instructor? The answer is clear…to inspire the next generation of technology innovators while gaining professional experience! For more information and to apply, visit: http://techcorps.org/jobs.

TECH CORPS NSBE Jr. Students Reflect on FRC

Students Reflect on NSBE Fall Regional Conference (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, November, 2011)

“FRC was great!  Attending the conference opened my eyes and showed me how many scholarships are out there for me.  This is very important for high school students because we need to learn about the opportunities that are out there for us.” - Christopher Steward, 11th grade

“The person who was memorable to me from FRC was Jerald.  He came from a low-income neighborhood; however, with his drive and mind, he received his degree on time and now works for General Electric.  He basically said that it doesn’t matter where you come from, but it does matter where you’re going.”-Vincent Johns, 10th grade

“I absolutely loved FRC.  It was my first conference, and it went above and beyond my expectations.  The reason I believe FRC is valuable for high school students is because coming to the conference really inspired me to become an engineer and allowed me to gain a sense of knowledge of what I now know I would like to pursue when I get older.” -Julie Harris, 11th grade

“My impression of FRC was very good.  I learned many new things, and it was very informative.  Coming to FRC is valuable for high school students because of two things: (1) it exposes students to engineering opportunities and career; (2) it also shows us some of the companies that have engineering opportunities (the career fair).” - Abby Kaye, 10th grade

Thanks to our Friends at Messer Construction for making this experience possible!!!

Who Inspired You?

TECH CORPS is currently recruiting Technology Professionals who are willing to share their Talent and Time inspiring elementary school students in Central and Southwest Ohio.

If you are a technology professional you can help by volunteering with TECH CORPS’ TECHie Club program.  TECHie Club is designed to introduce students to technology concepts and skills that are necessary for success in today’s classroom and tomorrow’s workplace.

TECHie Clubs are comprised of up to 20 students and meet weekly for 60-90 minutes throughout the school year. TECH CORPS trains teams of volunteers to use TECHie Club lessons and tools to introduce students to computing topics, such as: basic programming, web development, robotics, hardware identification, software applications, internet, and social networks. Depending on the size of Club’s volunteer team, volunteers visit the school weekly, bi-weekly or for just a few sessions.

Last year, TECH CORPS volunteers in Ohio, assisted more than 200 students in making the connection between the technology they love to use and the educational and career opportunities associated with the creation of this technology. This year, with your help, we will reach over 300 students!!!

We hope that you will join us in MAKING A DIFFERENCE for students in our community by becoming a TECH CORPS Volunteer today!  Registration deadline is September 22, 2011. To register as a volunteer click here.

My Second Week at Tech Corps

It has been interesting for me to realize that I have a common theme for my activities at Tech Corps. Last week the common theme was about Designing.
After getting approval from the Tech Corps National Director for my marketing plan, I started the implementation phase of my project last week. The first part of this was designing a Brand Identity for Tech Corps. What is a Brand Identity? A simple explanation is everything associated with that brand (i.e. a corporate name) in its customer's mind. An example of a strong branding identity is Coca Cola. As a consumer you remember this brand when you see its font or its color. Why is brand identity so critical? A strong brand identity can position a company above its competition. Brand identity is the reason customers choose one brand over another.
But having a brand that is strong takes time, money and effort to develop. For TECH CORPS, I consolidated all of its visual communication features, from its corporate logo (Tech Corps) to its products/programs logos (Techie Camp, Techie Club, Camp IT, Student Tech Corps), from its basic fonts to its identical colors. Using these branding features, I created a design for other Tech Corps communication materials such as letterhead (and footer), slides, table clothes, etc.  The designing process was so fun! I played with all designing techniques and tried different design settings. I will present my design proposal early this week and I am looking forward to hearing the feedback. .
Additionally, I visited a Techie Camp at the Wellington School. This camp was for middle school students grades 6th to 8th. They learned about programming. Using Alice 2.2 and Story Telling Alice they learned how to create animation stories and video games. I observed them playing with their characters, encouraged them to try different design functions and had fun with their learning. It was amazing to watch them demonstrating their final products after just one week of learning! (http://www.youtube.com/user/techcorpsohio#p/a/u/0/QWd-gDu9vNs).
There ends my second week at The Columbus Foundation Summer Fellowship program. The fun has not ended, though! More learning is expected in the coming weeks! I am getting the best and most out of my summer intern experience.

My First Week As Marketing Intern

My name is Ha Dang. I am a first year MBA student at Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University. Last week, I started my summer fellowship  as a Marketing Intern at Tech Corps Ohio. The 10-week fellowship is sponsored by The Columbus Foundation.

My first week was wonderful! I received a warm welcome from both organizations, The Columbus Foundation and Tech Corps. The highlight of the week was my time spent with the Techie Camp 3rd - 5th grade campers on the first and last day of the week. Techie Camp is one of Tech Corps’ summer programs.  I was inspired to see that the campers were enthusiastically working with their Lego robots. I was completely blown away when these campers presented their final projects in front of their parents. I believed their parents felt extremely proud of them. Not only did the Techie campers learn to build and program robots, they also had a good time with each other.  http://www.youtube.com/user/techcorpsohio#p/u/6/6KqB6Lvkw9g.

The campers did not spend their entire experience building and programming. They also raced cars, played baseball, and enjoyed blogging about how their days went. Not to my surprise, all their last blogs said the same thing: they were sad to leave Techie Camp and to leave their best friends. I was moved, with a little amusement, to see the campers exchanged their parent’s contact information with each other because they were not "old enough" to have their own.

This week's experience reaffirms the inspiration I get from the mission of Tech Corps in preparing young generations to be technically proficient in the high tech-era. I hope during my fellowship, I could contribute my part toward the mission thus making a positive difference in the life of many children. 

I did make an important step toward this goal this week, with my marketing strategy proposal which I presented to the Tech Corps National Director.  I received her approval to go forward with my ten-week project implementation plan.

My first week was productive and memorable. I am looking forward to such experiences in coming days.