Watertown High School Senior Earns Cash Award from Computer Company

The following information was released by Custon Computer Specialists:

Fifteen high school seniors throughout the Northeast are recipients of the 2012 Custom Computer Specialists Right Start Scholarship, including Watertown's Jake Hellman. The $1,000 cash award is presented for academic achievement and for standout essays that creatively answer the question: “If you were in charge of enhancing education through technology at your school district, what technologies would you implement and why?” Custom Computer Specialists is one of the Northeast’s largest information technology providers in the education market.

“Technology has become a vital part of the overall educational experience and the ways that individual districts approach technology varies as much as the technology. The intelligent, creative and mature responses from our scholarship program participants clearly displays how so many promising seniors understand and embrace the direct impact different technologies can have on education,” explained Gregory Galdi, President of Custom Computer Specialists.

Responses to the essay question provided a broad range of ideas that transported the traditional classroom beyond its four walls. Award recipients explained how mobile technologies can revolutionize the educational experience by creating interactive learning experiences. One recipient wrote of using modern day apps like Angry Birds to teach physics, while another created his own retina scanning app that would alert teachers if a student is having trouble reading. (A complete list of scholarship winners is attached).

This is the third year of the Right Start Scholarship Program. More than 400 seniors applied for this year’s scholarship; winners were chosen by a panel of technology experts. The students, their parents and school district representatives were invited to award ceremonies that are planned for May 22 in Rhode Island and May 24 in New York.

Based in Hauppauge, N.Y., and Lincoln, R.I., Custom Computer Specialists has been providing technology solutions to K-12 school districts throughout the Northeast for over 30 years. The company employs more than 225 people and supports more than 400 school districts.