Aug. 7, 2019

This paid piece is sponsored by the Sioux Falls Development Foundation.

Sioux Falls-area high school students got an early look this summer at what careers in the information technology field could look like, thanks to a unique program with a lot of partners.

The IT Academy was funded by a federal EPSCoR grant, which is through the National Science Foundation and stands for the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research.

For about six weeks, high school students attended class for three hours daily Monday through Thursday in Sioux Falls or Madison, as Dakota State Unviersity instructors taught computer science.

In the afternoon, the students went to paid internships throughout the community and even statewide, where they learned about career opportunities and got to contribute work to their employers.

Along the way, they connected with others in the industry through business tours coordinated by the Sioux Falls Development Foundation.

Here’s an inside look at how the program worked.