Computer Technologies Program The Bridge to a Career
At the recent graduation ceremony marking their completion of training at CTP, the students of Programming Class 38 were described as “feisty and phenomenal, awesome and amazing, striking and stupendous”, and lauded as representative of the best and the brightest of CTP’s Programmer Training classes. Friends, families, BAC members, CTP Staff and Rehabilitation Counselors gathered last December at Spat’s in Berkeley in a joyous celebration to honor all the hard work and sacrifice of these students demonstrated in earning their CTP Certification.
When this group first began its tenure at CTP early last year, the students of Class 38 were noted for being representative of some of the cultural shifts which have occurred over the past few years. They were the first class in which every student came to CTP already having an email address, the first class where students had to be told to turn off cell phones during class, and the first class to ask questions about how body piercings might affect their chances for employment! Well, in only a few short months following graduation, this smart and lively class has earned the distinction of achieving a 100% placement rate. An employment update for the members of Class 38 follows:
Alan Garayguy was honored as the recipient of the HP Outstanding Student Award, an award voted on by class members. He was described by classmates as someone who was “always willing to help anyone and everyone”, who was “very good at explaining and demonstrating things to classmates”. And on top of it all students said, “Alan does all of this – always with a very positive attitude”. Alan completed a very challenging internship with a web design company, Jel Productions in Sacramento. He will be applying some of the web design techniques he learned there in his position as Contract Programmer with the County of Sacramento Dept. of Health and Social Services.
Illiena Volynskaya also took on an extremely challenging internship assignment at GeoData Inc. in Emeryville. Her internship working with GIS programming, this interfaces geographic mapping with database information. This lead Illiena to her current position working as a programming contractor with PG&E utilizing CAD (which she taught herself post graduation).
Jose Mora did some contract work for CTP with other non-profit agencies while he was a student, and was extremely helpful to staff and students in the computer lab at CTP. His skills were quickly recognized in the corporate world as well, as Jose received a job offer as a programmer from his internship sponsor, McKesson Corporation, even before his internship had ended!
Kuljeet Singh, opted to spend the internship period before graduation increasing her proficiency with Dragon Dictate, a voice-activated computer input software. She then completed her internship at Visa Corporation, where her programming talents also earned her a job offer even before the completion of her work experience
Congratulations, Graduates!
