Today's main story image and video contributed by Jaye White of Cascade Vacation Rentals

From Boreal Community Media - August 8, 2019

The theme of the day for technology camp on Thursday, August 8th was scripting, software development, and automation.   Instructor Joan Bernard also has a professional theme for each day of the week for students to embrace and learn more about.  Today's theme was critical thinking.

Each day a local community IT expert stops in to speak to the students after lunch about the different career paths that they can explore.  Thursday's guest speaker was Rena Rogers, IT Director for Cook County.   Rena talked about how IT has changed throughout her 35 year career.  She talked about the different roles for each of her staff in the County IT department.  The students also shared with Rena their favorite parts about IT and had time for questions at the end of Rena's session.

Friday, August 9th marks the final day of technology camp. The instructor for the camp is Joan Bernard and her assistant is David Blackburn, a Cook County High School graduate and Boreal intern who is now majoring in Computer Science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.  Named 2017 Minnesota Educator of the Year by the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system, Joan Bernard currently teaches in the Computer Networking Department at Hennepin Technical College in the Twin Cities and holds several technology professional certifications.   

This opportunity was brought to Cook County students by a collaboration between Boreal Community Media, Cook County Higher Education and Cook County Schools ISD 166 Community Education.  Generous community donors came forward to help fund this camp.