James Farley was just one of two students who attended last year’s Tampa Bay Technology Forum Exploratory Lab Program, which was hosted by a team of educators from St. Petersburg College’s College of Computer & Information Technology, Valpak and Tech Data. From Farley’s standpoint, the purpose of the exploratory lab was to “help students who are pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of South Florida (USF), University of Tampa (UT) and SPC, to become aware of careers in information technology.
The program featured IT jobs that focused on concepts such as Cloud Computing and Data Warehousing, which enabled students to “think outside the box.” Farley believes that programs such as this one expose individuals to a wide range of concepts which he believes is beneficial since it pays to be “a jack of all trades.”
Other concepts that were introduced were:
- Understanding Technology Trends
- Integrated Marketing Strategies
- Emotional Intelligence
- Taking Business Risks
- Networking Stack
- Video/Collaboration
- Software Licensing
- Web E-Commerce
- UX and Design Thinking
- Agile and Lean Development
- Security
- Data Analytics
Farley heard about the Exploratory Lab Program from a fellow tutor at the college, Giny Kapili, who also attended the event. Though Farley already has an MBA and a Bachelor’s degree, he is currently pursuing the Technology Development and Management Bachelor of Applied Science (TMGT-BAS) degree at SPC with a sub plan in Data Analytics. He believes that the event afforded him the opportunity to connect with people from a variety of backgrounds and age groups.
All students were asked to perform group projects. Farley and 18 others were split into teams and had to come up with a business plan, executive summary and timeline. This was a great networking experience since students communicated via video conferencing to complete the projects. To his delight, his team won. Overall, it was a rewarding experience.