The Norwalk Board of Education is proud to recognize P-TECH Norwalk grade 12 Students Vincent Coppola, Seamus Herlihy, Raymond Lin, Klaus Schroeder and P-TECH graduates Colton Lovell and Katelyn Negron for their achievements in a national P-TECH competition.

This past summer 800 IBM interns from P-TECH schools around the United States were tasked with presenting a solution to a challenge proposed by their assigned business unit. The interns received a presentation template to utilize and were judged on 4 pillars: innovation, market feasibility, well developed solution and presentation quality. The winners of each business unit then went on to the P-TECH Internship Expo, held in late summer. IBM executives served as judges of the final competition.

Working together as Team Nebula, Vincent, Seamus, Raymond, Klaus and Colton prevailed wining 1^st place with their innovative solution "Chatbots for Restaurants.” Team Nebula worked through a full design thinking process, ensuring their product was most conducive for the end-user's experience. They did this by investigating the emergence of chatbots and digital assistants, discussed common benefits and concerns around the emerging tech, suggested ways to expand their usage, and scaffolded its implementation for both, the restaurant's customers and employees.

Vincent, Seamus, Raymond and Klaus continue to take college classes and are on track to graduate with their associate degree at the end of this year. Colton was the first P-TECH Norwalk graduate to earn three associate of applied science degrees from Norwalk Community College. He now has a full-time position working with IBM.

Former P-TECH Student Katelyn Negron also participated in the IBM internship this summer. Negron and her team won in the first round among interns in the Global Business Services unit and competed in the internship expo. Her team was challenged with creating a “post-COVID” solution for their assigned industry that integrated either artificial intelligence, Watson, the Cloud, or all three. Katelyn received an associate’s degree in web development from Norwalk Community College and is currently studying psychology at DePaul University.

P-TECH students can earn an associate degree in software engineering, web development or mobile programming at no cost, by taking courses at Norwalk Community College during high school. A partnership with IBM gives students access to mentorships, worksite visits, paid internships and potential permanent positions.

The Board of Education honors Vincent, Seamus, Raymond, Klaus, Colton and Katelyn for your great achievements. We look forward to seeing where your path takes you next and which ideas you choose to pursue!