The Computer Technology Center is going to be packed with a group of 50 students from different high schools as they team up and compete against one another when Contra Costa College hosts its first 

All Academy Day Competition, March 26 from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m.

“When you compete you learn more,” Competition Coordinator Richard Grotegut said. “You get to find out what you know, don’t know, and things you need to work on.”

The event will feature high school students from six different schools.

The information technology event is comprised of four main individual components and a school component. The students will be judged on how well they do in computer building, presentation, troubleshooting and cyber security, receiving scores for each at the end of each round.

Career Pathways Manager Evan Decker said, “The students are being trained and taught to do these types of tasks.”

The student who wins the event will receive a refurbished laptop as a prize. While the school component of the event is called the quiz bowl. That’s when each school will pick four students to compete in a school versus school battle.

Grotegut said the winner of the quiz bowl could possibly be rewarded with a banner for their school.

Each competitor will get a certificate for participating in the competition.

The students who are competing in the event have been preparing for the All Day Academy Competition for months.

They received a packet including everything they would be doing in these various competitions.

Outreach is a point of emphasis for this event.

The Computer and Related Electronics (CARE) program teamed up with Grotegut who has a lot of experience doing these type of events.

The college started looking for schools that are local and as some were not able to participate they were able to find schools that were intrigued by the event and decided to join.

“The college is trying to provide high school students with some college campus exposure to allow them to see if this is something they want to do,”  computer information services professor Pam Rudy said, “We want the students to have an idea (about how) to further their education, and we want them to know there are opportunities.

The main priority is to make sure the students all know that they have many different college educational options to choose from.

“We hope to encourage students to do different things,” Rudy said. This is another opportunity to reach out to others around the community and pique the curiosity of local high school students  and to let them know about the various programs offered at the college.

This may be the first time the college will host this event but the CARE department hopes that this can continue to be a yearly thing in the future.

The department has hopes of possibly having this event at each high school in the district over the years.