In my free time outside of work I enjoy giving back to the community specifically by working with young people. I do a lot of community work through programs sponsored by my church but specifically I teach, mentor and also serve as a coach. I started volunteering to work with young people many years ago when I was a college student at Virginia Tech. At that time, I volunteered at the local community center as a basketball coach. It was such a rewarding experience for me that after I graduated and moved to Atlanta, GA...I continued volunteering as a basketball coach and I also coached baseball. When my wife and I joined our church, we served as youth directors and we planned several community events for the young people at our church. We did volunteering at a local homeless shelter and we sponsored back to school supply drives and other fun events like attending pro sporting events. We also did a SAT preparation seminar for the kids in the community to help the high school students that were planning to attend college. We also did a one day seminar to teach students how to create websites. Now that my children are grown, I now have more time to spend pouring into the lives of young people. I am currently mentoring a young man who is 21 and helping him with financial planning so that he can achieve his goal of owning a house. My wife and I are serving as "marriage counselors" for my cousin and her husband who are a young couple learning how to navigate marriage, kids and work.
Last month, I was the opening speaker at my church to kick off the Youth IT Empowerment Month. The goal of the IT Empowerment Month was to help introduce IT careers to minority students.
I was really humbled by the response that I received from the folks that saw my speech which was streamed live on FaceBook. I've had several people reach out to me asking me to speak with their son or daughter about IT careers. I'm looking forward to more opportunities to share my knowledge of IT with young people. Next, I want to do a summer technology workshop series where I hope to teach skills on linux, storage and cloud.
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Norman Owens
Open Systems Architect
Mohawk Industries
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Original Message:
Sent: Thu April 21, 2022 03:15 PM
From: Krista Summitt
Subject: How Do You Create? Show Us Here!
In preparation for our upcoming IBM Community Social Hour: Let's Create! we would like to see how our members - users, customers, partners, and IBMers - create in your personal lives.
Do you play the trombone? Have a podcast? Build furniture?
Share a photo and description with the community here, and you may be featured during the social hour!
This video, from the incomparable @DAVID Jenness, has all the details. (plus, it is just plain cool 😎)
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Krista Summitt
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