The Information Technology Student’s Association (ITSA) was introduced to campus this semester after some computer information technology students developed the idea for it last fall.   

“We came up with the idea that we wanted to help students study for and take IT certification exams which are very important for any job in the industry,” co-founder and president of ITSA Joshua Martin said. “That then expanded into offering a more hands on experience with different equipment which is also not offered in the classroom.”  

IT students realized there was a need for this type of club in the SNHU community. “Sadly, SNHU doesn’t offer any technical “hands-on” teaching with computers, which is a major setback to students who want to break into the IT industry since people usually don’t get hired without technical support experience,” Cole Padula, secretary of ITSA, said.  

The meetings, which take place every other Wednesday at 5 p.m., are very interactive.  “We had a Pizza and PC Night for our initial meeting, in which we dove into the innards of an old Dell desktop and the group members gave instructions on how to add and remove hardware devices,” Padula said.   

Lately, the meetings have revolved around Raspberry Pi’s, which are small computing devices. “We have some awesome project ideas varying from building a drone that we can fly to making an arcade machine to play games on,” Martin said. “The possibilities are almost endless.” 

Club members are also welcome to bring their own project ideas. “We want to offer our club members the opportunity to come up with a project that we would otherwise not be able to do in a classroom setting, and design and execute it with the help and collaboration of others,” Martin said.   

Two of the club’s goals are helping members acquire technical certifications, something SNHU does not currently offer its students, and attending a major IT conference, which would offer networking opportunities to members.  

This club is open to students of all majors to join. “If they join the club, they might learn how to use them [computers] for fun, not just school work,”Dr. Stephanie Collins, computer and information systems professor and ITSA advisor said.   

“We want to expand our member base and open the world of IT to others. We want to share our ideas and experiences with each other and help one another and have fun while doing it,” Martin said.   

The next ITSA meeting will be on Wednesday, March 29 at 5 p.m. in Robert Frost 333. 

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