Incredibly Honored...
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Two days ago, I received an email that really surprised me.
With this job, I am amazed at the people I get to meet. I'm making great friends on a daily basis with some of the smartest people in the Midwest (and the country, if you ask me.)
I do a good amount of speaking, and certainly in Ohio I've done my share lately. With each speaking engagement, I get the chance to leave an impression on a room full of people. Positive or negative, I'm leaving impressions. On Tuesday, I realized how far those impressions travel.
My live.com email address (if you know me, you could guess it) is one I use for places I need a LiveID. I don't really use it for email, or calendar, etc. Just for logging in to sites that require it.
Occasionally (maybe once a month), I'll jump over to the email, just to see if someone might have written me there by mistake. There were 6 messages, 5 of which challenged my masculinity in one way or another. The 6th message though, was from a woman named Paula Caso.
She was contacting me because she teaches at a Cleveland-area high school, and runs the computer club there. They were having a fundraiser, and were building a new computer that they would auction off later this spring. With their allotted budget, they built an amazing machine. High-end gaming system. However, they were short-sighted in their spending. They blew their whole budget on the machine, and forgot to leave something for an operating system. (Before you start talking about free ones, remember that this machine will be auctioned to the public, and Windows is almost certainly a requirement.) Her husband had seen me talk at the Cleveland .NET SIG, and thought she should contact me to see if I could help.
It was her signature line in her email that most intrigued me, however.
As it turns out, I grew up in North Olmsted, and spent my 4 years of high school at NOHS (as a three-sport athelete, no less). Smallest of worlds. So I'm looking into a way to help them out. And I let her know that. I also gave her a little background on what my role is with Microsoft. I told her that I've been writing/architecting software for the past 10 years, and that now I get to tell everyone about the new, cool things that we're doing at Microsoft.
She immediately asked me if I would be interested in coming to talk to her computer club. Since I will be at the Cleveland .NET SIG on February 12, I told her she could have that entire day, if necessary. She contacted the principal, and got me a small assembly on that day.
They are going to pull math, physics, and computer science students from their classes to come hear what *I* have to say? Whoa. That's flattering. I was expecting 8 kids in a classroom.
Looks like I need to wrap up this post and start writing a presentation.
With this job, I am amazed at the people I get to meet. I'm making great friends on a daily basis with some of the smartest people in the Midwest (and the country, if you ask me.)
I do a good amount of speaking, and certainly in Ohio I've done my share lately. With each speaking engagement, I get the chance to leave an impression on a room full of people. Positive or negative, I'm leaving impressions. On Tuesday, I realized how far those impressions travel.
My live.com email address (if you know me, you could guess it) is one I use for places I need a LiveID. I don't really use it for email, or calendar, etc. Just for logging in to sites that require it.
Occasionally (maybe once a month), I'll jump over to the email, just to see if someone might have written me there by mistake. There were 6 messages, 5 of which challenged my masculinity in one way or another. The 6th message though, was from a woman named Paula Caso.
She was contacting me because she teaches at a Cleveland-area high school, and runs the computer club there. They were having a fundraiser, and were building a new computer that they would auction off later this spring. With their allotted budget, they built an amazing machine. High-end gaming system. However, they were short-sighted in their spending. They blew their whole budget on the machine, and forgot to leave something for an operating system. (Before you start talking about free ones, remember that this machine will be auctioned to the public, and Windows is almost certainly a requirement.) Her husband had seen me talk at the Cleveland .NET SIG, and thought she should contact me to see if I could help.
It was her signature line in her email that most intrigued me, however.
(PS: North Olmsted High School is a public 9-12 school on the west side of the Cleveland metropolitan area in Ohio.)
(PSS: Our computer club web site is http://www.nohsteachers.info/PCaso/NOHSCompClub/ -- we maintain our own server, but our site is in need of updating.)
As it turns out, I grew up in North Olmsted, and spent my 4 years of high school at NOHS (as a three-sport athelete, no less). Smallest of worlds. So I'm looking into a way to help them out. And I let her know that. I also gave her a little background on what my role is with Microsoft. I told her that I've been writing/architecting software for the past 10 years, and that now I get to tell everyone about the new, cool things that we're doing at Microsoft.
She immediately asked me if I would be interested in coming to talk to her computer club. Since I will be at the Cleveland .NET SIG on February 12, I told her she could have that entire day, if necessary. She contacted the principal, and got me a small assembly on that day.
They are going to pull math, physics, and computer science students from their classes to come hear what *I* have to say? Whoa. That's flattering. I was expecting 8 kids in a classroom.
Looks like I need to wrap up this post and start writing a presentation.
Labels: jeff blankenburg, microsoft, NOHS
6 Comments:
commented by 
John Stockton, 11:43 AM
John Stockton, 11:43 AM
That just rocks. Having been in one of your presentations, I think you have the engaging type of personality to really connect with these high schoolers.
I think if you showed them things like Seadragon or Photosynth, and then went to Popfly, that'd be a great lesson.
I wonder how many of them actually ever get to play in Visual Web Developer...
I think if you showed them things like Seadragon or Photosynth, and then went to Popfly, that'd be a great lesson.
I wonder how many of them actually ever get to play in Visual Web Developer...
John, Jason, I completely agree with you. Popfly will definitely be featured, and certainly Photosynth and Seadragon will eb talked about. But I will also be talking about careers in technology.
I want them to understand that embarking on a life in software development is a commitment to a lifetime of learning. Knowing how to build a website today is not enough to keep you going for 30 years. You need to be open-minded and adaptable to succeed as a developer.
I want them to understand that embarking on a life in software development is a commitment to a lifetime of learning. Knowing how to build a website today is not enough to keep you going for 30 years. You need to be open-minded and adaptable to succeed as a developer.
"On North Olmsted! On North Olmsted! We will win this game!"
Does it count as a 3-sport athlete if one of those sports was men's volleyball?
Does it count as a 3-sport athlete if one of those sports was men's volleyball?
If you're going to show Twitter live, at least warn us ahead of time that you're at the high school :P
Seriously, though, I could see you giving an excellent presentation that could encourage youngesters to join us in this hectic field. Your enthusiasm and passion for the field will definitely impact them.
Good luck on your presentation!
Seriously, though, I could see you giving an excellent presentation that could encourage youngesters to join us in this hectic field. Your enthusiasm and passion for the field will definitely impact them.
Good luck on your presentation!
I love talking to students. Last year my Mom called me and asked if I'd come speak at her school. It was at the end of the year and the school picked a profession each year and had a guest speaker come in to speak to the students about what they did. I was going to be in the area anyway so I said sure.
I got there and it turns out I presented to the entire 7th and 8th grade. It was probably the most fun speaking I've ever had and reminded me of my days teaching 6th-8th grade. At the end of the talk I wrote a quick version of Calc.exe and surprisingly they were glued to their seats.
It is very rewarding work sir, enjoy it.
I got there and it turns out I presented to the entire 7th and 8th grade. It was probably the most fun speaking I've ever had and reminded me of my days teaching 6th-8th grade. At the end of the talk I wrote a quick version of Calc.exe and surprisingly they were glued to their seats.
It is very rewarding work sir, enjoy it.
Jeff Blankenburg is a Developer Evangelist for the Microsoft Corporation. I have a passion for user interface technologies, including CSS, 
Quite an interesting challenge too though, this isn't an auidence of developers with prior knowledge of programming. You will have to tailor your talk to non-developers but at the same time not act like they are stupid or that will put them off just as much as talking over their head would.
Personally I think your Popfly talk could make a good base to start from as that's stuff they could go home and do that day. Just my two cents.