INTERalliance plugs brain drain by targeting high school IT talent

Procter & Gamble, the University of Cincinnati, and Atos Origin are enticing prospective IT superstars to stay in southwestern Ohio for college and to build their careers. For the three founding members of The INTERalliance of Greater Cincinnati., the reason is simple: Retaining homegrown talent is critical to any community's future.

Since 2005, when regional businesses and educators formed the collaborative nonprofit to plug the region's "brain drain," INTERalliance has been cultivating IT talent as early as high school. 

One Man's Dream

The driving force behind INTERalliance is Executive Director Doug Arthur. A more exuberant spokesperson would be hard to imagine. Arthur's primary role is to expose promising high school students to local education and career opportunities in information technology.

"We have more Fortune 500 companies, per capita, than just about anywhere in the nation, and yet we have the highest exodus of 19- to 30-year-olds just about anywhere," says Arthur. These young professionals often don't return to the area until they're 40, "when it's time to buy their first house and they need grandma to baby-sit," he says.

Arthur recognized that some of their most prolific years were being lost while they attended college and began careers elsewhere. Along with several others, Arthur decided to stem the tide by integrating the interests of local businesses and area colleges and universities.

"The original model that we designed and that INTERalliance inherited was for middle school kids as values-based leadership training," Arthur explains. The model was adopted for high school students after considerable upgrading to make it more career-path oriented, without completely losing its values-based leadership training aspect.

But the program is definitely not a something-for-nothing proposition.

"Our corporate sponsors don't guarantee jobs. That's not the way the world works," says Arthur. "We want them to compete for jobs."

What sponsors do provide are the resources and access necessary to show the attractiveness of local post-secondary institutions and local companies. These are companies with IT expertise and needs -- those who will heavily influence the fortunes of tomorrow's workforce.

IT Boot Camp

For five years INTERalliance has conducted week-long "IT Careers Camps" each July for 20 local high school sophomores per session. This summer 120 students from 39 Cincinnati area and northern Kentucky high schools participated in the intense problem-solving experience hosted by the University of Cincinnati's College of Business, Miami University's School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Northern Kentucky University's College of Informatics.

In each session, four corporate-sponsored teams competed in daily problem solving, with students proposing solutions to real business challenges. This year's competition challenged each team to create a business plan for a new enterprise employing people with disabilities. The plans were presented to a panel of "judges" from several service agencies and corporate sponsors.

The teams came up with ideas for a manufacturer of foreign-language-speaking dolls; a personalized cupcake bakery; and a specially equipped amusement park for people with disabilities, staffed by people with disabilities. Corporate sponsorships cost $5,000 per team. Students that can afford it, pay $250 each to participate. Scholarships or other funding is available for students in need of financial assistance.

Kenneth Li, an 11th grader at Loveland High School, says IT Careers Camp was very timely for him.

"This camp was just what I needed to make an informed decision," he says. Li says he's considering IT as a career because of his INTERalliance experience. "Overall, this camp has made me rethink my future and now I believe an area in IT might be a great possibility for me."

Arther says "INTERalliance brings subject-matter experts into the classroom and it brings the kids into the laboratories." In addition to IT Camp, 36 recently graduated high school juniors and seniors received full-time paid summer internships at P&G, GE Aviation, Kroger, Kao Brands, FirstGroup America, and INTERalliance itself.

IT Olympics

This spring, almost 400 students came together for three days of video game competitions, 3D graphics, new search engines, high-tech demonstrations from the U.S. Air Force, and breakout sessions about IT careers in the local business community. Kroger, P&G, Atos Origin, the Cincinnati CIO Roundtable, and 23 other companies joined UC, Miami University, and NKU to host "TechOlympics Expo 2010."

During the event, Atos Origin (Worldwide IT Partner for the Olympic Games 2004-2012) selected 10 high schools for a two-year technology competition. The winning school will send five students and a teacher to visit the Technical Operations Center at the London Olympics in 2012.

The overall winner of the 2010 Expo, Sycamore High School, was awarded the INTERalliance Cup, which it will defend next year. Adi Singh and his classmates from Sycamore designed a game ("Techno Cornhole") that uses sensors and electronics to track successful beanbag tosses on a PC.

"The goal of the TechOlympics Expo was quite simply to get regional high school students jazzed about high-tech jobs in the Greater Cincinnati region and the pathways than can lead them to these careers," says Jim Scott, chair of INTERalliance's board of directors and chief technology officer for the Kroger Company.

Chiquita, CincyTech, Cintas, Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Fifth Third Bank, Microsoft, Toyota, and six of Cincinnati's leading high schools (Walnut Hills, St. Xavier, St. Ursula, Cincinnati Country Day, Indian Hill, and Sycamore) are all charter members of INTERalliance. Membership in the organization is open to all Greater Cincinnati Region businesses, organizations, high schools, and post-secondary education institutions.

"If you're a problem-solving wizard and you're comfortable using your cell phone to download tunes, you're a budding IT genius," Arthur claims. To date, 750 of these "budding geniuses" have gone through INTERalliance's program.

"The big payoff for these kids is getting them internships and co-ops, instead of flipping hamburgers or mowing lawns or watching somebody's baby," says Arthur, of his own baby - INTERalliance.