Posts by Mark Dempsey
Boot Camp for Recruiting Strategies
The National Convergence Technology Center (CTC) recently helped promote a unique “boot camp” workshop for IWITTS (the National Institute for Women in Trades, Technology and Science) to deliver in-depth recruiting and retention strategies to select community college teams. Three schools ultimately participated in the workshop: two from Texas, one from Maryland. Each fielded a team…
Read MoreTale of the Thumbtack: Updating a Program Bulletin Board
Developing strategies to successfully recruit students is a key goal of the National Convergence Technology Center (CTC). The CTC staff recently rolled up their sleeves to tackle this problem head-on when we decided to update a bulletin board in a classroom hallway here at Collin College. The bulletin board is in a high-traffic area students…
Read MoreSharing Best Practices
The National Convergence Technology Center (CTC) manages a community of practice called the Convergence College Network (CCN). The CCN is a cohort of 45+ community colleges and universities from around the country that share best practices and receive CTC benefits and resources. The goal is to enhance the CCN’s IT programs. Quarterly meetings are one…
Read MoreAn Online Winter Wonderland
The National Convergence Technology Center (CTC) has been hosting three-day Winter Working Connections since 2012. These events (like their “big brother,” five-day Summer Working Connections events) are designed to offer IT faculty in-depth professional development in a specific IT topic so they can better teach that topic at their home school in a subsequent semester.…
Read MoreIs Block Chain Something New Worth Watching?
An important part of every meeting with our National “BILT” (Business and Industry Leadership Team) is the “trends discussion.” That’s the time when BILT members discuss the current state of the IT industry, in terms both of today’s challenges and tomorrow’s tools. At a recent BILT meeting, block chain technology was mentioned. Glenn Wintrich, an…
Read More9 Things We Learned at Our Fall Conferences
The National Convergence Technology Center (CTC) attended several conferences this fall to make presentations and sit on panels and roundtables; to disseminate information about our grant work at exhibit hall booths, to recruit new member schools to our Convergence College Network (CCN) community of practice, and – when time permits – to attend breakout sessions…
Read MoreDiversity Challenges in Silicon Valley
A recent article by Vauhini Vara in Fast Company looked at the problem of workforce diversity in Silicon Valley. While the article mostly examines how Pinterest seeks a successful strategy to hire more women and minorities, a similar struggle is underway at a number of high-tech companies. In many cases, the executives understand that there…
Read MoreRide ‘Em, NetRiders
We always like to hear about accomplishments of students from our Convergence College Network (CCN) member schools. Belicia Miraval Albornoz, an instructor at El Centro College in Dallas, send word to us about recent success three of her IT students had at Cisco’s NetRiders competition. NetRiders is an online interactive contest that utilizes Cisco’s web…
Read MoreTrends Talk
A regular feature of our Business and Industry Leadership Team (“BILT,” for short) meetings is a quick discussion of current and future trends. What are IT departments looking for in new hires today and what will they be looking for in 18 months? This is always a great way for our Convergence College Network (CCN)…
Read More31 Flavors of Business Meetings
Engagement with business and industry leaders is an essential element for any community college’s IT workforce program. Anyone familiar the National Convergence Technology Center (CTC) knows this – we call these groups business and industry leadership teams, or “BILTs” – is one of our cornerstone beliefs. We preach about the value of a BILT whenever…
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