Waukee High School's HyperStream Prepares Students for Tech Careers

In college, when you’re looking for ways to gain experience in your chosen profession, you usually start at the bottom. That means working internships and volunteer positions to get a leg up.

In Waukee, students are getting an edge as early as middle school through a program developed by the Technology Association of Iowa called HyperStream.

HyperStream is a technology career awareness program that’s helping cultivate and mentor middle school and high school-aged students for careers in technology. The program pairs students grades 6-12 with area technology professionals for hands-on experience working with today’s technology. Waukee High School was a test site for the program that launched in 2008.

In the three years HyperStream has been in Waukee Schools, technology-minded students have created websites, messaging systems and brainstormed ideas on how to make the best use of technology.

Perhaps the most successful project developed by HyperStream students has been Skloop, a Twitter-based messaging service that sends students, parents and staff of Waukee High School messages via computer or cell phone. Say there’s a snow day - Skloop notifies students first – even before the TV news – that they’re going to get the day off. Breaking news? Same thing.

Michelle Hill, a computer science teacher at Waukee High School said HyperStream gives her students an opportunity to “get their hands dirty and try things out” similar to what they would do in a professional capacity.

“There is only so much I can dream up or teach them in a day,” Hill said. “I can tell them what something would be like in a programming environment, but the real world experience HyperStream gives them is invaluable.”

“The projects are very student-driven,” said Tamara Kenworthy, marketing consultant for the Technology Association of Iowa and owner of On Point Strategies. “Waukee High School students developed Skloop all on their own and it’s really amazing. We’re very proud of the program.”

Kenworthy said HyperStream works two-fold – it not only provides students with hands-on education, but it also helps recruit for positions in the technology field, an industry always on the lookout for new talent.

“Technology is changing the world and everything we do today,” she said. “We want to be there for students who love technology and support them, but we also want to reach out to students who don’t. We can show them that we do some really cool things.”

Jacob Richardson, a 2010 Waukee High School graduate, doesn’t need convincing about what HyperStream can do for students. He started in the program his junior year helping to develop and launch Skloop. Today, Richardson, 19, is heading for a job as a software developer for Groupon in Chicago. He attributes his early success to the experience he got working with HyperStream.

“Some of the things we did - the hands-on programming and working with software professionals - those two things changed my perspective,” he said. “I hadn’t thought about programming as a real career. After we had actually applied what we learned to real-life situations, I knew wanted to be programmer from then on.”