My first experience with Computer Science and Information Technology came in my sophomore year of high school. I was part of the Southern Minnesota BDPA chapter from 2004 to 2006. My parents wanted my brother and me to join this extracurricular activity after Mr. Francis Aning, a family friend and the president of the Southern Minnesota Chapter at the time, mentioned it to them. We were not particularly excited about giving up our Saturday mornings to do more work in addition to our school work. I just remember my parents telling me (often times repeatedly) how much of a good opportunity this class could be for us. They always taught us to be open-minded and to try new things. So I decided that I was going to give computer programming a change.