Symantec Weeks Caps off a Great 2007 summer program!

Our very successful 2007 summer program ended with a BIG week at Hopeworks – a week of fun, learning and new experiences for all of the youth.  From a standing ovation in Washington DC to a tour of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange it was a week to remember!

Tuesday - URISA Conference

Six youth along with GIS Director Tarren Anderson and Father Jeff presented the Keynote Address to the 2007 Urban and Regional Information Systems Association national convention in Washington DC.  Click here for more...

Wednesday-

Community Training

21 people attended this year’s Community Training which featured  Symantec’s Sue Rich and Lee Whity going over preventive measures we can all use to protect against viruses, spyware, and malware. GIS Director Tarren Anderson got people turned on to new ways to use Google Maps and Google Earth applications and Father Jeff and Production Trainee Lilly Roman gave participants a tour around My Space – showing how social networking is now done on-line.

Technology Scavenger Hunt– In the afternoon Hopeworks was transformed into a beehive of activity with 13 technology stations set up with challenges for our trainees.  Youth had 3 hours to complete as many tasks as possible ranging from creating a short video using Adobe Premiere, to following a handheld GPS unit to retrieve clues on State St.  If successful a youth would earn a prize along with a chance to  win one of the big technology prizes. Congratulations to Nefertiti Bryant who won this years grand prize, a Digital Picture Frame!

Digital StoryTelling Film Festival– Following the Scavenger Hunt everyone crowded into our conference room to watch the premiere of 16 shorts films created by our trainees in our summer Digital StoryTelling program.  The audience considered the writing, editing and images in each movie before voting for their favorite.  Congratulations to Patrick Osborne who took home first place in our first summer film fest.

Thursday - "On the Road" –

Hopeworks took to the road on August 23rd - our first stop – The Philadelphia Stock Exchange where Harry Dewedoff, Senior Systems Administrative Manager and Michael Fil, VP of Data Center Operations gave our staff and youth a tour of their massive IT operations. In addition to the incredible computer systems at the exchange we also saw former Hopeworks Trainee Dan Castelan on the trading floor.  Dan has been working at the Stock Exchange since June as part of an internship program that Hopeworks has with the Stock Exchange.  Our next stop was lunch at the Hard Rock Café and then we were off to St. Joseph’s University on City Line Avenue.  There we had a tour of the campus and even checked in with Angel Rodriguez, a former Hopeworks trainee who was getting ready to start his sophomore year at St. Joe’s.   Good Luck Angel!  And THANKS to Symantec for sponsoring all the activities, it truly was a week to remember.