<Monroe /> COMPUTE$   Celebrates Early Winners

“The early bird gets the worm,” exclaimed John Padget today as he presented $500 cash awards to four students at Coral Shores High School.   “You are the first completers in Monroe County to earn the Microsoft Office industry certificate during this school year.  Congratulations!”

Students enrolled in all Monroe middle and high schools can learn basic skills and pass the national certification tests for Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.  Over 400 began their journey when school opened last August.   Students learn at their own pace, and sit for the exam when they are ready; having proven their competency, they tutor their peers and move on to more challenging certificates.

“We have more awards available for the next batch of completers, at the $500 level for the top winners, and decreasing to $100 for each student who completes before June 30, 2017,” Padget said.  “Students adding another high-level certificate will each receive $250 awards.”

<Monroe /> COMPUTE$ is an initiative of John Padget and Jacob Dekker of Key West, and one of the Padget-Dekker foundations.  “We are committed to students ready to grasp the challenge and get deeply involved in computer science—guaranteeing their job futures in virtually any industry.”

Padget continued, “All forecasts tell us that most jobs of the future will require some knowledge of computers and computer science.  www.Code.org forecasts that there will be a million open jobs in America by 2020.  Right now in Florida there are about 25,000 open jobs–in all industry sectors–that require computer science skills.”

“Now in its third year, <Monroe /> COMPUTE$   has made more than 350 awards for success in computer science, “Monroe County Superintendent Mark Porter explained.  “I’m really proud that we can show this result in a rural county like Monroe, and as the logo says—Learn Here/Work Anywhere.”

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