Column

Fun, games put kids on pathway to success

By ERNEST HOOPER
Published August 14, 2007

Mohammed Baraka's ambitious business plan has the look of success.

In an instant, Baraka can display colorful logos, letterhead, brochures, fliers, business descriptions and goals for Books and Beans, a proposed bookstore/coffee shop. His five-year plan is to expand the company to the point he will take over Barnes & Noble or Borders. Or both.

Okay, Baraka is 12, but you can't knock the kid for dreaming big. Through the CompuTer-rific Program, a collaborative effort between the Tampa Bay Technology Forum and the Boys & Girls Club, Baraka and fellow students learned about computer applications at the Brandon area club. Ja'deana Irizarry developed a nail salon, Wayne Tellis envisioned a sporting goods store, and Felicia Forteau designed her own hair salon.

"I learned that when you make a business, it's not just fun and games, it's a lot of work," said Baraka, who used Microsoft's Word, PowerPoint, Publishing and Excel programs to put the project together. "It was a lot of fun to come up with these ideas."

When an expected 1,000 people gather for the forum's annual Summer Tech Jam networking event at Raymond James Stadium Thursday, the connections made will mean as much to area kids as they will to aspiring tech managers. Since its inception in 2001, the forum's program has provided more than $1-million in donated computer equipment, software, infrastructure, labor and instruction for 20 computer labs in local Boys & Girls Clubs. These labs collectively serve about 700 local youths each day.

The next step for the forum is to get more companies involved with the kids. In Brandon, the kids treated board members to their business projects last month, and then paired up with board members for a flier competition.

"The kids themselves are impressive as all get-out," said forum board member Bob Riddell. "It was really good from my perspective to see them doing something they cared about. Each kid took their passion and built it into their presentations.

"It's hard to imagine someone would come here and watch kids as productive and thoughtful as they are and not think, 'Geeze, I want to be a part of that.' "

Forum foundation chairman Mark Rhodes said now that the group established the groundwork, it wants to have companies adopt the local labs and mentor kids on an ongoing basis. "We're really concerned with, 'Are we bringing up kids to be the workers we need going forward?' " Rhodes said. "We've got a lot of kids coming up here and then they go elsewhere to work in the Triangle Park or Silicon Valley, and we can't have that happen."

If nothing else, however, the kids' future appears brighter given their newfound skills. Heck, they already know more about spreadsheets and publishing than a lot of adults, including me. I can laugh at my own computer ineptitude, but as the club's computer instructor Robyn Tellis said, it's important these kids know not only how to work the computer, but how to make the computer work for them.

Their future involves more than just MySpace and iTunes.

That's all I'm saying.

IF YOU GO

6th Annual Summer Tech Jam

When: Thursday, 6 p.m.

Where: Raymond James Stadium.

Admission: $30 (includes buffet).

[Last modified August 14, 2007, 00:34:10]