2009 Innovation in Education Award Finalist

Todd Salesky

Award: High Impact Teacher of the Year
Brea Olinda High School
Brea Olinda School District

“ As a teacher of 20 years, I feel my work with the Global IT Academy is the most important I have ever done” —Todd Salesky, teacher

Program Description

Challenging academic rigor has been a mission of the Global IT Academy (GITA) at Brea Olinda High School. Todd Salesky worked with Brea’s community, higher education, business leaders and administrators to bring a brand new IT program to the school.  This program was created to address the crisis of students not going into technical fields like computer science.  Also noteworthy is the academy’s percentage of female participants.  At 33%, it is better than most universities, and exceeds the national average for women in computer science of about 15%.

Every course in the GITA program is a college level programming course. Students develop software for simulations, business applications, websites and even video games.  Students study languages such as Visual Basic.net, Javascript, Flash Object Scripting, Java and HTML.  The curriculum has also aligned with UCI’s Informatics program, where as part of a summer institute for GITA, students visit the UCI campus and interact with UCI students and professors. 

GITA students perform community service hours, help teach GATE classes at the local junior high, and are encouraged to be technology leaders in the community by developing websites for local businesses, and helping older adults learn computer skills.

What is the role of K-12 education in driving Orange County’s economic competitiveness?

It is vital that the business sector interact with public schools so that we grow qualified future business professionals.  For the past four years we have invited business professionals into our classroom to talk with students about careers in IT, as well as their experiences abroad.  Students have a very small perspective about careers in IT, so we must provide experiences to create an awareness of the infinite career possibilities available.