TPepin Hospitality Centre Team Wins 2011 Technology Bowl

Winning Team Members and With Coach and Celebrity Moderators

On Saturday October 22, 2011 Computer Mentors Group hosted its Annual Technology Bowl and the team representing the TPepin Hospitality Centre came away victorious as the first place winners. The “Tech Bowl” was once again hosted at the Hillsborough Community College Brandon Campus. This year assisting as celebrity moderators were Rod Carter, morning anchor for WFLA News Channel 8, Aminta Voyce, formerly WTMP Radio personality, Bill Goede, Bank of America Tampa Market President, Bob McCann, Vice President of The Nielsen Company, Julie Smith, Verizon VP External Affairs, and Tom Banta, Numara Software VP of Global Operations.

Members from the winning team included Alicia Bishop, Ayele Gibson, Jorlin Howard, and Martin Brouillard who are participants in the Thursday night group for the Computer Mentors Group Youth Program and were coached by Keith Lockley. Each member won a brand new Toshiba laptop computer loaded with all the bells and whistles.

This was the 6th Annual Technology Bowl. The event is sponsored the Hobbs Family Foundation who purchased the prizes for the event. Also The Nielsen Company and Suncoast Schools Federal Credit Union were Giga-byte sponsors. Teams competing in the event represented Hillsborough Community College, Interface Network Systems, Numara Software, Tampa T-Shirts, TPepin Hospitality Centre, the winner of the event, and Verizon. Second place this year was taken by the team representing Suncoast Schools Federal Credit Union. They were awarded Toshiba Netbook computers while the team representing Tampa T-Shirts were awarded Kindle e-readers for taking third place.

Tom Banta, VP of Global Operations for Numara Software said “Once again this was a great event for young people to learn about technology and compete in a fun environment. Our hats off to Computer Mentors for all their efforts not only for this event but for all they do over the year." Mr. Banta who has attended for the last three years, participated this year as a celebrity moderator.

Information Technology Forward Moves Into New Facility

IT Forward Students Preparing Workspace

The Information Technology Forward Civic Justice Corps Program (IT Forward) was started on Monday Oct. 24th with its first six (6) participants. The young adults, all currently males, had program orientation, met the staff, and were introduced to the facility that will be the programs home for the next two and a half years.

All of the young men are from Hillsborough County and are excited about learning to become computer technicians. The young adults, who are also task with providing community service, were given their first assignment, preparing their own workspace. Painting, assembling desks and chairs, and running data cables are the order of the day as the team is expected to have the facility prepared for the remaining participants within the next few weeks. Participant Rodney Senter said “It was an awesome experience” when asked about how he felt about building his own workspace as part of community service.

CMG Alumnus Bridge the Digital Divide with New Company

Garrett Johnson

Tampa’s historic Belmont Heights is known for producing nationally recognized icons. Gary Sheffield, Dwight Gooden, Carl Everett and Derek Bell are just a couple of household names that bridged the notoriety gap between the world and East Tampa. Sheffield and Bell would become unofficial USA ambassadors as their 1980 Belmont Heights baseball team was televised in the Little League World Series Game against Haulian Taiwan.

Three decades later, CMG alumnus is proving that Belmont Heights is still building bridges to the rest of the world and within its own community. With a host of awards and accolades surrounding his academic and athletic career, Garrett Johnson greatest achievement may have ties back to Belmont Heights, Technology and CMG.
“I had no idea I would launch a tech company,” said Johnson as he reflected on being a middle school student entering the CMG program. “I knew technology would be an important tool in my life because I saw myself seeking higher education and knew I would need technology and my brain to achieve my goals,” Johnson said. Achieving is exactly what Johnson did. Johnson Vitae following CMG includes: Salutatorian in the 2002 graduating class at Tampa Baptist Academy, magna cum laude in three years with a double major in Political Science and English from Florida State University, and a Master's degree in Migration Studies as a 2006 Rhodes Scholar at Exeter College, Oxford University.

Now, at age 27, Johnson has developed a tech company called Inforate, which combines his progressive knowledge of technology and his formal studies of poverty, social economics and iniquities facing certain communities.
“I began to think what would help my family and other families in Belmont Heights,” said Johnson. “I began thinking about my, parents, nieces and nephews and how to improve their life.”

Johnson believes Inforate is an affordable solution for families, schools, non-profits and businesses to communicate effectively and within a most reliable platform. According to Johnson Inforate users will be able to send mass text messages to large groups of people at a time for free.

Before explaining how Inforate will impact lives, Johnson shared the relevance of the technology within the context of a recent earthquake in Washington DC. “During the earthquake, the phones were shut down,” said Johnson. “Calls did not come in our out. But texting worked! Texting is the most trusted and accessible form of communication,” said Johnson.

Understanding the mobility and functionality of texting and the per capita rate of citizens who own mobile devices, Johnson has identified the potential for impact at a personal and community level. Johnson believes Inforate’s success will take place when individuals access this potential.

Johnson offered a practical example. “If you are a school teacher and you have 30 students in your math class and you have 30-60 parents, more than half of the families may not have access to the Internet in the home,” said Johnson. As a result, Johnson believes teachers sending the parents and email is not the most effective way to communicate. “But most of families people have a mobile number,” Johnson said. By tapping into the saturated market of mobile device users, Johnson believes entities seeking to reach parents, clients, and even patients will find Inforate to be a major partner to their cause. “This technology is for teachers, non-profit organizations, businesses and doctor offices,” said Johnson.

This fall, Johnson will leave Washington DC, where he currently is a staffer for the Senate's Committee on Foreign Relations. Johnson plans to relocate to California seeking investors and potential business alliances that will further the development of Inforate.

“We are bootstrapping. We are pulling resources from friends and family who believe in the idea,” said Johnson. After December we are looking for investors who believe that the masses should have access to technology.”

Moving to California is a strategic decision for Johnson, but he plans to keep his heart in Tampa. “I will always be loyal to Tampa,” said Johnson. Reflecting on his roots, Johnson attributed portions of his journey directly to CMG and Belmont Heights.

“If it were not for CMG in the Belmont Heights community, there would be many homes without access to technology,” said Johnson. “CMG helped to expose me to technology; Especially Ralph Smith and his commitment to bridging the digital divide. Now Johnson believes his company Inforate also will help to bridge that digital divide.    (Story by James Cole)

From The Director

	Director Ralph Smith

Hi Again Everyone;

As the year starts to wind down, it’s time to start reflecting the things that we are grateful for. At Computer Mentors Group, we are grateful that we are about to complete our 14th year of service, and will celebrate our 15th year anniversary next year. We are also grateful that we are now seeing some of the fruits of our labor. The story in this issue about our most notable alumni, Garrett Johnson, is just one such example of what former students are doing. Another great example is Derek Williams. Derek was a program participant in 2007. In 2008 he became an advanced student and received an internship which he performed at Computer Mentors. Later Derek came to work for us as an employee and an assistant trainer. Derek enrolled at Hillsborough Community College where he is pursuing a degree in Information Technology. Simultaneously Derek is taking on more and more responsibility at Computer Mentors. Derek is currently responsible for the CMG inventory of donated computers and plays a major role in refurbishing the computers that are sold by CMG.

Thank you and regards,

Email: rsmith@computermentors.org
Phone: (813) 236-1191