NEWS RELEASE

Contact: David West (west@nsula.edu )
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466

4/1/2003

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATCHITOCHES- A team from Northwestern State University won first place in systems analysis at the Eighth Annual AITP (Association of Information Technology Professionals) Collegiate Conference held at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind.

The team of Andy Baragona of Slidell, Kelly Ellis of Berwick and Kelly McKenzie of Homer won the competition. Two other NSU teams were in the top four finishers with Tina Mouton of Lafayette and Deran Schilling of Dayton, Texas finishing second and James Smith of Metairie and Trey Staley of Minden placing fourth.

Northwestern has won the national competition in systems analysis three years in a row. NSU students have placed at all 11 competitions they have taken part in over the past four years.

"We are extremely proud of the showing by our computer information systems students," said Northwestern president Dr. Randall J. Webb. "The computer information systems program is one of our Areas of Excellence. The performance by our students and work done by our faculty show that this program is one of the best in the United States."

"Our students did a fantastic job at the competition," said instructor of computer information systems Barbara Russell, who was named Faculty Advisor of the Year. "This shows the overall strength of the program. The students are outstanding and the faculty provides broad based training."

Russell said the student success in system analysis is because of the training done in program processes and database structure as well as in system analysis.

NSU students placed second in three other categories. The team of Nick Hammonds of Goldonna and Curtis Penrod of Robeline were second in COBOL. Kelli Fontana of Natchitoches was second in Undergraduate Student Papers and the team of Kirsten Allen of Atlanta, La., Janice Allen of Winnfield and Dennis Watkins of Kileen, Texas was second in the Banner ­ Creative category.

Mouton and Schilling were also third in the Webmaster category. The team of Fontana and Penrod were fourth in Database.

"It is very unusual to see one institution place in a variety of competitions," said Russell.

NSU also won the "Top Monkey" Award which is given to the institution with the largest attendance.

AITP has over 5,000 student chapter members through a network of 255 student chapters at colleges and universities throughout the U.S.A. and Canada. The AITP student program, started in 1968, is designed for students planning careers in information systems or related fields. This conference was designed to supplement traditional IT education by its unique program design.

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