MaSSSoftech

Two Southwest High School rising seniors are heading to Washington D.C. Sunday in hopes of furthering their futures.

Kenny Chadwick Jr. and Vincent Lewis, both 17, will join 18 other teens from various states as part of four-day trip with The Framsyn Initiative to the Channel @ Work: Future Tech Leaders Program, part of XChange ’09 to receive further training in the information technology field.

XChange ’09 brings together more than 250 solution providers and leading industry vendors in diverse technology areas to build business relationships. The Future Tech Leaders Program will give the teens the opportunity to attend, participate in Microsoft training and certification courses and network with the solution provider community.

“Teens skilled in technology will shape (information technology’s) future and we are keenly aware that more need to be done to make the next-generation workforce truly useful employees,” said Nancy Hammervik, managing director for Everything Channel Events in a press release. “We are looking forward to offering these teens a platform to learn and network with potential employers.”

Jacksonville native and current New York resident Dino White started working on The Framsyn Initiative about two years ago because he saw a need, he said.

The Framsyn Initiative was created to stimulate economic growth and development by providing students the opportunity to pursue a career in information technology with certification and training prior to graduation, White said.

“You want to have a focus on high school students who are bringing that type of attention to the area,” he said. “And when the schools focus on that and you’re producing that type of person professionally, then when industries and companies are looking to relocate they’ll see that Onslow County will have something different to offer.”

Framsyn is a Scandinavian word that means “foresight, future vision, view forward, looking far beyond,” which is what the program stands for, White said.

To become a part of the initiative initially, high school students submit an essay and a photograph to White. Once accepted, students study to earn various information technology certifications such as Microsoft small business specialist, the installation of office software and office systems, programming and computer engineering. Teens also participate in an internship with local computer businesses and take part in a summertime computer building camp for middle-school students.

“This program is a start to create hybrid workers. Workers who have a background in information technology and computers,” White said. “It’s just like in the old days when you either had to have the skill of knowing how to do carpentry or be an automotive mechanic — You have to have that skill basis in technology now. Any job you have is going to have some use of a computer in it.”

During the Future Tech Leaders Program, the teens will have the chance to build a computer from scratch; sit in on briefings from Microsoft, HP and Intel; and network.

“The parents of these kids will have a computer whiz in their home when they get back,” White said.

Lewis said he joined The Framsyn Initiative to help him in his future career in engineering.

“I think it’s important to have as much certification as you can because then it allows you to do a different variety of stuff,” he said.

Meeting new people and garnering additional information technology certifications are what Lewis said he is looking forward to most about the upcoming event.

While Chadwick said he doesn’t have a career in information technology in mind, he believes the training provided by The Framsyn Initiative and the Future Tech Leaders Program will be beneficial.

“With this training think it will better me with any career I choose,” he said. “I think it’s vital for any job to have some type of (information technology) training.”

White said he hopes in the future more students from Onslow County will be interested in the initiative.

“I wanted more students from other high schools … I’ve been trying for two years to get a nucleus of kids together so they could attend this and it just didn’t work out,” he said. “Hopefully with these two kids going to the event other kids in Onslow County will become interested.”