Are you I.T.?
It was a Wednesday morning, 10 a.m., when I arrived in room D203 for the big Information Technology videography process. Through a doorway to an adjacent room, were lights and camera equipment set up. There was a girl sitting on a stool in front the biggest light box I’d ever seen, she had blonde hair and wore a blue GENESEE tee shirt. Her name was Erica Parker. I was told to come in and settle down before the camera guys began the interview process.
For the next hour we listened to Erica tell her story as she responded to questions about her experience in Genesee Community College’s Information Technology program. She just recently graduated from GCC with a 4.0 average in I.T. But before then, she attended GCC’s IT Academy Career Pathways program for high school seniors and earned college credit. “High school student by morning, college student by afternoon!” The beginning of her journey was tough because she noticed that she was the only girl in some of her I.T. classes. She said when she walked into the classroom, everyone stared, and she got the impression that they were wondering if she was in the right place. “Are you in the nursing program?” Erica said she was asked frequently by GCC students. “No, I’m in Information Tech”, was her usual reply. Erica spoke more about how a GCC teacher, Jim Bucki, noticed her potential and encouraged her to think about I.T. as a career option! She did, and she said finding her place became easy when teachers showed a deep desire for her to succeed, and as she learned more about her field. It was inspiring to hear her story and to see how a commercial is made.
More filming and photo ops were done in the afternoon and I got to sit as an extra in one of the videos so keep your eye out for me. 😉
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