Telecommunications camp focuses on programming

The Union-News and Sunday Republican. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.
July 21, 2000
Jennifer Jensen, Staff writer

SPRINGFIELD - As soon as the bell rings on that last day of school, most kids don't give a second thought to teachers, books and computers until September rolls around.

But there are a few who are going the extra mile this summer by putting their noses in books and clicking away as fast as they can on a computer mouse.

Camp Telecom is being held on the campuses of Springfield Technical Community College and the University of Massachusetts at Boston. The camp is sponsored by the Mass Telecom Council, UMASS, the National Center for Telecommunications Technologies at STCC and the Metropolitan School to Career Partnership.

Some 25 students are involved in the program, six of whom are at STCC. Five of those students are from Central High School; the other recently graduated from Agawam High School. Classes are being taught by Dave Tilley and Dave Moquin, both of Central High, and Scott A. SaintOnge from NCTT.

For three weeks these students spend weekdays from 9 am to 4 pm working in computer labs, going on field trips and getting hands-on experience in the world of telecommunications.

Studies focus on programming in different computer languages; next week students will learn about fiber optics, wireless communications and networking.

Each of the students is sponsored by a company. Springfield students are sponsored by Natural MicroSystems, Verizon (Verizon), Compaq, JDS Uniphase, Tenor Networks and NCTT.

Each student is required to complete a project based on their sponsors. Presentations will be at the closing ceremonies of the camp, which will be held in Framingham at the Sheraton Tara Hotel.

Camp Telecom is the brainchild of Deborah Boisvert of the Metropolitan School to Career Partnership. The camp was created in order to try and help students realize the importance of computers and the future that lies in them.

"We're trying to catch the students at the right time," explains Dr. James Masi, executive director of NCTT. "At Camp Telecom, students are getting real life experience in learning tools for telecommunications," he continued.

Nikolay Katko of Central High was working on computer animation while Brian Mahoney, also of Central High, was working on his version of the PacMan computer game.

Jim Tapper of Central High demonstrated the traffic light he had created through Java programming. "I want to learn as much as I can. Computers are a big business and I want to get into it if I can," said Tapper.

Some of the students, such as Don Jones, had taken some related computer classes in school while others, such as Nicholas Sneed, understand the importance of computers but aren't necessarily innately drawn to them.

All the students have come to a better understanding of computers and their presence in life and realize the jump-start they've been given.

According to Kyle Stocks of Agawam High School , "The camp is all right. But it has been tough because I'm not familiar with the programs we've been taught so far. I would recommend the camp, though."

Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those
of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the National Science Foundation.

This material is based on work
supported by the
National Science Foundation
under Grant Number DUE 0302548.

Springfield Technical
Community College

The ICT Center c/o STCC, One Armory Square, PO Box 9000, Suite 1, Springfield, MA 01102-9000
(413) 755-6550 (phone) | (413) 755-6325 (fax)