The opportunities in the technology field are expanding in Liberty Public School district. There was a Tech Night on April 2nd, and students perusing technology or are interested can participate in Hackathon on April 26th.
On April 2nd there was Tech Night from 6:00-8:30pm at Liberty North High School. Students were able to meet high school students, college students, and professionals who are passionate about the field of technology.
“Tech Night is open to middle school students and high schools students,” junior Isebelle Matthys said. “There is a panel of high school students; a panel of college students and a panel of people from start up companies. They are just going to share there high school and college experiences, what kind of stuff they took to get where they are. You can get some of your questions answered there.”
Other than having lots of people there to help answer your questions, there were also many other activities or booths to check out.
“There were also booths there, college booths and a couple businesses booths,” Matthys said. “There were also some hands on activities. Our Robotics team will be there and have a booth. North West Missouri State will be there too.”
Tech Night was an event geared toward informing 6th to 12th grade kids looking at the possibilities of a technology as career. The night is also geared towards informing parents about how the fields of technology can be beneficial to their kids for more than just a career.
“One point of Tech Night is to get people who are interested out of their shell, because a lot of people are ashamed to pursue or admit that they have an interest in technology,” Olivia Clemens said. “At Tech Night they want people to be aware that it is cool and there are so many job opportunities in that field. There’s so much you can do with it and we just want those people to get out of their shell. If you like it then you should try and pursue it.”
Another event geared towards technology:
Hackathon is a telethon where students from all ages come together to code, hack, and work together towards a goal.
“Hackathon is a 24 hour programming day. Basically the students will be in groups five or six programming an app or game that can hopefully go to apple or android market.”
Hackathon is not just for students who know how to code; it is for all different kinds of students.
“I’m looking forward to seeing the diverse amount of kids there from all different ages and from all different aspects of school,” junior Tyler Tetens said. “There’s mentors and students of all different ages there to help too. It’s for all different types students, not just students looking to code; it’s for students from graphic design, and web development also.”
The over all goal of Hackathon is for students to work together as team to code, to learn, and to work towards a common goal. There are many things you can learn from Hackathon.
“The perception of what technology really is, and what it means, there’s kind of a misconception among students,” Matthew Barksdale president of Engage Mobile said. “It’s not about programming, it’s not about sitting behind a computer, that’s like a small subset of technology. What technology is really all about is applying knowledge in new and unique ways in order to solve problems.”
The skills the students will take from this experience can help them with many kinds of job opportunities in the future.
“Technology cuts across all industries,” Barksdale said. “So almost any job you can think of is going to be impacted by technology. The thing I’m focusing on in the speech is that technology is going to impact every job, every industry in some way.”
As technology is moving forward it is important students are well aware of what’s happening.
“So you have two choices,” Barksdale said. “You can either embrace that and be proactive with the changes that are taking place. Or you can just sit back and let those changes happen to you. So it’s really important for students to embrace technology and embrace the change that are taking place. Because that’s going to create opportunity with both the short term and the long term.”
