The Pamplin College of Business is reaping the benefits of a successful alum with a $60,000 donation made to the school by ChoicePoint Inc., a commercial data brokerage firm based in Alpharetta, Ga., that Virginia Tech has worked with regularly for many years.
Doug Curling, former president and chief operating officer of ChoicePoint, graduated from Tech in 1977 and has worked for ChoicePoint since it's founding in 1997. He is also a member of the Pamplin Advisory Council's fundraising committee. Curling suggested that the College of Business apply for the grant through the ChoicePoint Cares program, a branch of the company that supports students doing information technology work with non-profit organizations. The college was granted the initial $50,000 donation in early September after proposing to finance a Business Information Technology internship program for Pamplin students with money from the endowment.
"ChoicePoint funds a similar program at Georgia Tech that has been very successful and they thought a similar program at Virginia Tech would also be beneficial, especially since ChoicePoint recruits many Pamplin students," said Richard Sorenson, dean of the Pamplin College of Business.
An extra $10,000 was just added to the program contribution last week.
"We think it's a wonderful opportunity for Pamplin College students to be involved in supporting organizations in the community. The goal is to assist in using technology to support social entrepreneurship," Sorenson said.
The internship program will "involve students working with non-profit organizations in Montgomery County to provide technology solutions," said Pat McCarthy, Pamplin's associate director of corporate and foundation relations. Student interns will work to help these companies develop effective Web sites, organized databases, and technology implementation plans.
Projects will be established through the VT-ENGAGE program, as well as the YMCA at Virginia Tech.
"Assignments will be selected for their information technology content and students will be selected for their skills matched to the project," McCarthy said.
Business Information Technology department faculty member Chris Zobel will work with the organizations and clients to coordinate projects and student assignments. Zobel said the internships will be unlike traditional positions and especially rewarding for Pamplin students.
"Students will develop experience working with clients," Zobel said. "But even more than that, students will be working for a company that is doing good for the community."
Funds from the donation will finance two part-time interns each semester for two years, as well as two full-time interns and a faculty supervisor during the summer semesters. The positions will be given to Pamplin students based on an application process and are slated to begin no later than September 2009.
"We're delighted to have ChoicePoint invest in Virginia Tech and happy to be of service to the community," McCarthy said.
Last week, ChoicePoint was officially acquired by London-based publishing company Reed Elsevier, owner of the LexisNexis Corporation, for $4.1 billion, creating what some consider a global information-gathering powerhouse. Though Curling is no longer with the corporation, he will remain active with the Pamplin Advisory Council, Sorenson said.
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ChoicePoint's "success" is linked to numerous shady operations and this statement by BIT faculty member Zobel, "students will be working for a company that is doing good for the community." should be challenged. ChoicePoint's operations have resulted in numerous complaints about the misuse of private data on citizens. In January 2000, the Pennsylvania DOT
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here's the rest of that comment: terminated a ChoicePoint contract because of this and later that year ChoicePoint paid a settlement of more than $1 million in the issue: http://www.ins.state.pa.us/ins/cwp/view.asp?A=11&Q=525493 That not enough for you? In 2005, the Securities and Exchange Commission investigated Curling and CEO of ChoicePoint for insider trading after they took $16 million in profits on trading done after they knew about a massive and scandleous data security breach but before they told the public about it. Here's a CNN article on that sleazy ChoicePoint dealing: http://money.cnn.com/2005/02/25/news/midcaps/ChoicePoint_stock/index.htm ChoicePoint may be smart trying to whitewash its ill-gotten profits with paltry donations to an academic program, but they are not good for the "community" of American citizens.
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