PAC program encourages minority students to pursue careers in Computer Science

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Unheard Voices was invited to Monmouth University to speak with the parents, students and instructors of The PAC program at their end of year semester ceremony.

The Program for Acceleration in Computer Science Careers (PAC) was founded by the Asbury Park-Neptune chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity in partnership with Monmouth University in 1985.  Since its inception, the program has been held at Monmouth University, whose School of Science, Technology and Engineering (formerly the School of Information Sciences and Technology) hosts the program.

PAC serves as a complement to the formal education of minority students by making available the experiences and talents of many minority technical and professionals in science, engineering and technology. The program annually provides computer, math, heritage and special subject classes to minority students from the Monmouth and Ocean County areas. To date, the program has served over 1150 children over 22 years.

The PAC program helps to prepare minority students academically for careers in computer science where they provide increasing relevance of computer science to our society. The goal is to close the gap of minorities studying software disciplines by increasing the student awareness of computer science job opportunities and career paths. Throughout the years the PAC Program has provided ample minority role models where these role models are able communicate how to provide positive attitudes toward when working in the field.

As the founder of Unheard Voices, Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity member, Co-founder of PAC program and an original instructor of the PAC program from 1985 to 1995, and has done post graduate work in the field of computer science, I was honored to talk with the parents who are the backbone of the program. Unheard Voices talked to the parents and the instructors about implementing Unheard Voices internship program to further the education of PAC students. Parent and Lawyer Kaye Daniels emphasized the importance on how mathematics has worked with the students knowledge of seeing everyday life as a math equation.