AITP Region 3 Student Conference had 280 Total Attendees!

What a tremendous weekend it was at Texas State wherein 280 Information Technology students, faculty, professionals, sponsors and exhibitors gathered for the McCoy's 2007 AITP Region 3 student conference in McCoy Hall of Texas State University-San Marcos.

McCoy's Building Supply, the conference title sponsor, CIO Dennis Strong got things off to a grand start with his reflections of his own career and the basic skills that it takes to be a successful IT professional in today's market and environment. The rest of the day was filled with exhibitors/recruiters, breakout sessions, tours of the Texas State IT facilities and challenging contest events throughout the day and into the evening which included Office Solutions, PC Troubleshooting, Network Design, Systems Analysis & Design, Database Design and Application Development.

Area high school students and faculty were invited by the Texas State AITP student chapter for the 1st annual high school IT symposium with Lehman, Clemens and Dripping Springs high school IT students/faculty taking part. Special high-school only contests in Office Solutions and Application Development were held which will become an annual event and a project of the Texas State AITP student chapter and the CIS department faculty. The newly formed AITP Student Leadership Council also held it's first meeting in conjunction with the conference and Texas State's own student chapter CEO Doug Fogle is on that council!

The conference was hugely successful due to the full support of the Texas State AITP student chapter, faculty and staff. Special thanks also goes to our conference sponsors which included McCoy's, USAA, ARGO, Dell, Tesoro, Tokyo Electron, RobertHalf Technology and AITP Region 3. Generous support was also provided by both the San Antonio and Austin AITP professional chapters behind the scenes - especially with the contest events - which also included lots of Texas State CIS alumni!

Although the Texas State AITP members entered many contest events during the conference, some had to decline at the last minute due to conference hosting responsibilities and challenges which comes with the turn of being the host. We did take both 1st place and an Honorable Mention in the Systems Analysis & Design contest sponsored by USAA!

The 2008 AITP Region 3 student conference will be held at Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas October 23-25, 2008 and you can bet that Texas State AITP will be well represented and relieved that we are not hosting it but we will be hosting our own IT high school symposium next fall in addition to attending next year's event at Angelo State University!

In the end - the Texas State AITP student chapter grew significantly in membership numbers, generated substantial funds to help support future conference attendance at the regional and national levels and bonded significantly as a goal was accomplished and the success was shared by all those that helped support the event!

Kevin Jetton
TxState AITP faculty co-advisor
AITP San Antonio Chapter President
2007 Foundation for Information Technology Education President

And now here are the conference statistics & winners:

Attendance: 280 TOTAL
64 Sponsors/Speakers/Exhibitors/Professionals
12 Volunteers
145 AITP Student Members
26 AITP College/University Faculty
29 High School IT Students
4 High School IT Faculty

Sponsors: McCoy's, USAA, ARGO, Dell, Tokyo Electron, RHT, ExxonMobil
Exhibitors: CSC, Dept. of Veterans Affairs, Microsoft, Denim Group, IRS, St. Mary's University, CSIdentity
Supporters: Boeing, Culminis, Texas State University-San Marcos

Contest Winners:
Office Solutions (25 teams) *Sponsored by Tesoro
1st Northwestern State Univ. Kyle Newman Jesse Calhoun III
2nd Texas State TCWT-Abilene Andrew Shawhan Jake Fleming
3rd Oklahoma Panhandle State Univ Andres Delanderia J. B. Test
HM Tarleton State University Devon Chase Leonard Foleen

Database Design (25 teams)
1st ITT Tech Inst - Arlington Francisco Garcia Courtney Saville
2nd Northwestern State Univ. Sara L Welch Marcus D Simmons
3rd Northwestern State Univ. Joseph E Beaudion Eric M Gertonson
HM Cameron University Christina Cummings Paulo Garza
HM New Mexico State Univ. Robert P Richie Shondra D Freeman

Network Design (23 teams) *Sponsored by Dell
1st Midwestern State University Mark McKee Tatsutoshi Kawamura
2nd Tarleton State University Jeremy McInroe Sergio Maqueda
3rd Oklahoma Panhandle State Univ. Micah Donaldson Blake Westbrook
HM Texas A&M International Univ. Alejandro D Ramirez Pablo Arias
HM Oklahoma Panhandle State Univ. Jesse Gill Blake Davis


Contest Winners:
Systems Analysis & Design (11 teams) *Sponsored by USAA
1st Texas State University-San Marcos Justin Ploof Cesar Cantua
2nd Oklahoma Panhandle State Univ. Michal Stachowski Clancy Green
3rd Northwestern State Univ. Marcus D Simmons Sara L Welch
HM Texas State University-San Marcos Sean Price Christopher Pheigaru
HM Oklahoma Panhandle State Univ. William Miller Zach Waugh

PC Troubleshooting (35 teams)
1st Oklahoma Panhandle State Univ. Jesse Gill
2nd Univ. of Arkansas ? Little Rock Kristopher Huckaba
3rd Midwestern State Univ. Joseph A Kocurek Mark B Mckee
HM The Univ. of Texas ?Pan American Ben Martinez

Application Development (22 teams) *Sponsored by ARGO
1st New Mexico State Univ. David R Navarro Shondra D Freeman
2nd Tarleton State University Jimmy Albus John Reeves
3rd Northwestern State Univ. Eric M Gertonson James Thornton
HM Oklahoma Panhandle State Univ. Jake Luera Nick Tuttle

H.S. Office Solutions (26 teams)
1st Samuel Clemens High School David Guyott
2nd Samuel Clemens High School Courtney Boedecker
3rd Samuel Clemens High School Tyler Kincer
HM Samuel Clemens High School Richard Braud

H.S. Application Development (5 teams)
1st Lehman High School Jesse Vera
2nd Lehman High School Alex Rasche
3rd Lehman High School Meera Day


Schools Represented:
Angelo State University
Cameron University
DeVry Institute of Technology ? Irving, Texas
Dripping Springs High School
East Mississippi Community College
ECPI - Greensboro
Ferris State University
Hardin-Simmons University
ITT Technical Institute - Arlington
Lamar State College-Orange
Lanier Technical College
Lehman High School
McMurry University
Midwestern State University
New Mexico State University
Northwestern State University
Oklahoma Panhandle State University
Prairie View A&M University
Samuel Clemens High School
San Antonio Chapter
Schreiner University
Tarleton State University
Texas A&M International University
Texas State TCWT - Abilene
Texas State University - San Marcos
The University of Texas - Pan American
University of Mississippi
University of Arkansas Little Rock