Shehab Ahmed, Amanda Koziol, David Duchan, and Erich Deutsch are honored for their work in the CCT program by the Project Management Institute.
Students (from left) Amanda Koziol, David Duchan, Shehab Ahmed, and Erich Deutsch are honored by PMI.
The Project Management Institute is an organization that sponsors a high school competition for students who are interested in technology. The PMI competition is not just for students of TJ; students from Eaglecrest High School and Fairview High School also entered projects into this competition, alongside those from TJ. Among the 25 students who entered from TJ, four students received awards.
“The Project Management Institute has sponsored a High School Project of the Year competition since 2005. TJ Magnet students have participated every year and have won Project of the Year awards and scholarships each year,” says CCT Magnet Teacher Stacey Fornstrom.
Shehab Ahmed, Amanda Koziol, David Duchan, and Erich Deutsch are the four TJ students who won awards from the Project Management Institute. Deutsch received his award for presenting the web designs that he planned and completed for the TJ Yearbook, TJ Robotics, and a Boy Scout Troop. Ahmed, Koziol, and Duchan received their awards for their work as part of the FIRST Robotics team. They each helped to organize the team, helped to design the robot, and built and programmed the robot to be ready for the competition.
Receiving this award gives these students recognition as winners of the “High School Project of the Year” award. They also receive an opportunity to apply for scholarships from PMI. In past years, some students found internships through PMI members, which could be a fast track to high paying careers. All of these bonuses are available to these four students, simply by entering a competition doing something that they enjoy.
“We had to make a Project Management notebook that documented the project that we did, the steps we took, how long it would take, costs, and a bunch of other different, small details. Then we had to present it to a bunch of people during the competition at a dinner, where we showed it off to executives and CEOs for different companies. Then we showed them our project and our notebook, our organization and stuff like that,” said Ahmed.
Ahmed, Koziol, and Duchan worked together and built a robot using their expertise from the Robotics and Pathways classes. Ahmed says he plans to apply for an internship at the Denver Tech Center in the future, and wants to pursue a career in computer sciences, so being able to place this award on his resume will definitely give him the edge to get ahead with his plan.
“There were about 12 or 13 teams and about five received awards for their work. The award will look really good on a resume because PMI is pretty big in the business world,” says Koziol.
The award opened up pathways for Deutsch, Ahmed, Duchan, and Koziol. They had the opportunity to apply for a scholarship awarded by the Project Management Institute and were able to each receive a $2,000 scholarship.
Several TJ students entered but did not win awards. Luckily for them, they can enter and try again next year, seeing as this has been sponsored and offered each year since 2005. If students are interested in entering one of these competitions by simply doing something that they love, or even just to find out more information about these awards or this organization, they can visit the Project Management Institute’s webpage.
