About the INTERalliance of Greater Cincinnati

The INTERalliance is a collaborative effort of Greater Cincinnati Regional businesses and educators, creating an environment that gives local young IT talent a compelling reason to stay in southwest Ohio both for college and their careers.

The Vision: Establish the Greater Cincinnati Region as a model of cooperation between business and educators -- working together to identify, nurture, train, employ, and retain the area's best IT talent.

Mission Statement: To create a renowned, thriving and sustainable pool of IT talent in the Greater Cincinnati Region that not only fulfills local demand, but also is strong enough to actually attract new employers to the area.

Program Description: Opportunities provided by members of the INTERalliance begin in high school and continue through undergraduate and graduate school. High school faculty members identify and nominate the best and brightest of the students showing an interest in and talent for Information Technology to participate in highly focused coaching and job opportunities, featuring mentoring, and unique global and local employment opportunities. The goal is, in essence, to groom these students for consideration for the most attractive technology jobs in the Greater Cincinnati market.

Member organizations include high schools, universities, and prospective employers who are willing to create internship and co-op work opportunities for students moving through the program. Local IT service providers offer a unique brand of mentoring and consulting exposure to the students as they take advantage of multiple years of opportunities for involvement. The INTERalliance provides governance and administration of a multi-tiered program that can offer students pre-employment opportunities over a period of up to seven years or more, including: (1) an intensive one-week summer IT Careers Camp for select incoming 11th graders, (2) in-school programming in coordination with high school technology, math, and science teachers, (3) paid IT summer internships for graduating high school juniors and seniors, and (4) work co-ops - both international and local -- during undergraduate and graduate degree programs.

Since 2006, the INTERalliance IT Careers Camps have served as the flagship offering of this collaboration.  One-week deep-dive behind-the-scenes experiential encounters take 20 high-school students at a time on a faced-paced exploration of career opportunities in Information Technology around the region.  Morning problem-solving "Olympics" events at the sponsor company sites set the stage for a weeklong "Communication Enhancer Inventor's Competition", in which four sponsored 5-student teams attempt to win "Best Design" recognition for a fresh idea that will help people with disabilities to be able to communicate better.  Lunchtimes are spent with the senior IT management of each sponsor company, who get a chance to tell the students about career opportunities after graduation.  The program has expanded to be hosted by University of Cincinnati's College of Business, Miami University's College of Engineering, Northern Kentucky University's College of Informatics, and, new to 2009, Xavier Universities MIS and Computer Science Departments of the College of Business.

.Participating High Schools as of September 2008: Archbishop Moeller High School, Boone County High School, Campbell County High School, Centerville High School, Cincinnati Christian Schools, Cincinnati Country Day School, Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy, Colerain High School, Covington Catholic, Elder High School, Ft. Thomas - Highlands High School, Hughes Center High School, Indian Hill High School, Lakota East High School, Lakota West High School, Little Miami High School, Madeira High School, Mason High School, Miami Valley Christian Academy, Mother of Mercy High School, Mount Notre Dame High School, Notre Dame Academy, Purcell Marian High School, Ryle High School, Seton High School, Springboro High School, St. Henry’s District High School, St. Ursula Academy, St. Xavier High School, Summit Country Day School, Sycamore High School, Taft IT High School, Talawanda High School, Turpin High School, Ursuline Academy, Villa Madonna Academy, Walnut Hills High School, Western Hills University High School, Withrow University High School, Woodward Career Technical High School, Wyoming High School.

INTERalliance Board of Directors: Tony Saldanha, Director, P&G, Board Chairperson; Dilip Lillaney, Associate Director, P&G; Vivek Choudhury, Chair, IS Dept, U.C. College of Business; Geoff Smith, President, LP Enterprises; Jim Scott, Chief Technology Officer, Kroger; Melissa Johnson, CIO, Comair; Doug Arthur, Executive Director, INTERalliance / Manager, Atos Origin.

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