News

Three KidsTek students from Montbello High School each earned a Flip video camera courtesy of Cisco Systems, Inc. at this year’s International Society for Technology in Education conference.  The annual national conference was held in Denver this year at the Colorado Convention Center.  The students interviewed conference attendees using Flip cameras over the course of three days. The students completed a Cisco certification class at Montbello this spring, as well as being enrolled in an advanced portion of the course in the new school year beginning this fall.  Cisco Systems also awarded KidsTek an additional Flip camera which will be used in video creation classes for middle and high school programs.

Bog the American alligator and other Denver Zoo friends visited KidsTek’s class at Stedman Elementary to celebrate the end of year. The scaly reptile was joined by a Madagascar hissing cockroach and Alex, the red-tailed hawk. The zoo visit concluded the six-week course where students wrote stories in Microsoft Word and created PowerPoint presentations about animals.

When Willie Oshodin speaks about dreams, students listen. As a teenager, the former Denver Bronco and KidsTek board member immigrated to the United States from Nigeria. He was still learning the English while navigating a new country, culture and high school all by himself. Willie was a soccer player and used his athleticism to find a place in a new American sport.

Back then, he was short and lanky; a self-described bean pole.  He tried out for his school’s football team and started off as the manager.

“And what I mean by manager is I was the water boy,” Willie explained with a smile.   

He admitted getting frustrated and angry at where he was on the football team and in school.  The school’s coach encouraged him not to give up.  He began hitting the gym and library and by senior year he was playing varsity football and making honor roll.

Aurora Central High School is home to many students who share Willie’s story.  In the Aurora Public School district, students hail from more than 120 countries and speak more than 95 languages with 38 percent of students as second-language learners.  

KidsTek’s College and Career Preparation at ACHS is comprised of students from all over the globe including all over North America, Asia and Africa. In the class, they are learning how to prepare a resume and cover letter, how to interview and how to search for and apply to college and jobs. 

During his visit to the after-school computer class, Willie asked each student what his or her dream is. One student wanted to go into business, another student from Thailand wanted to become a singer and one shy teenager whispered that he hoped to be an engineer someday. Willie asked a timid Latina student to expand on her dream of becoming a teacher.

He asked, “How do you become a teacher?”

“Go to college?”

“Right! How do you go to college?”

“Graduate high school.”

“How do you graduate high school?”

“Go to class, I guess.”

“How do you go to class?”

At this point the whole class started laughed and the student – while a little puzzled – relaxed a little. She asked, “What do you mean?”

Willie responded, “What do you have to do to get to class everyday?”

“Ummm. Get dressed?”

“Exactly! Dreams are what get you up and make you get dressed in the morning.”

Willie went on to discuss how dreams are achieved through hard work and little luck. He encouraged the class to never lose sight of their dreams and to do something everyday to achieve them.  He talked about the countless hours spent in the gym to prepare his body for college and professional football.

He spoke about teaching himself Oracle systems after his NFL career. Willie diligently made his way through the system manual until he was prepared to take what he learned into the workplace. He interned at a technology agency to hone his skills and months later the company offered to back pay all the time he volunteered there.  Today, Willie is a Benefits Consultant at JauntNow Inc, which markets Corporate Vacation Benefits. Since July 2005, he has also served as the Director of Information Technology at 1stHour Communications, LLC.

“Some people say I’m lucky I tell them that hard work makes luck.” 

Montbello High School Students currently enrolled in KidsTek's Cisco certification program took a recent field trip to Cisco's local Englewood office.

While the students were on site, they were treated to presentations by various Cisco employees on the history of the company, the latest innovations in networking technology, and some demonstrations of emerging technologies.

The students had the opportunity to see a live demonstration of a Cisco TelePresence workstation in action (including checking in on Cisco’s corporate offices in Beijing and Amsterdam.)

These Montbello students will continue to go on more valuable field trips spring.