I was the in the "Computer Club" in highschool, in the late 90's early 00's. In retrospect it was quite amazing that we lucked out, because what happened was a

I was the in the "Computer Club" in highschool, in the late 90's early 00's. In retrospect it was quite amazing that we lucked out, because what happened was a guy who had been working in the industry decided he wanted to bring computing to his hometown, and so left the industry and used his contacts to push for a top-notch tech center in the high-school. It was one of the very first high schools to have the Cisco Networking Academy for example, so many of us had our CCNA before we had even left high school. We were issued laptops and cisco routers... which at the time I thought was awesome but it didn't dawn on me till I was older just how much this one person had done for us kids. It was he who encouraged us who ended up always in the tech center to start the computer club, and do things like compete in the VICA (now SkillsUSA competitions) and we regularly dominated. It was under his tutelage I first installed RedHat linux, and he would have us do things like CTF's with each of our issued routers/laptops to teach us practical security. Most of our events we organized ended up being basically LAN gaming parties, but back in that day gaming required you to know some basic networking stuff so it was also used to hone those skills. Once a month we would do all friday night lock in's, mostly playing Half-Life, Team-Fortress, Quake, Counter-Strike, or Unreal Tournament, and sometimes Starcraft/Warcraft. Lots of Jolt soda, mountain dew, and Bawls combined with pizza. Some really good times that I look back on fondly, and I often wonder what all the guys are up to these days. I'm sure almost all of them ended up in some facet of the industry, but it was quite fun to teach me that you can't judge a book by it's cover. We had jocks playing football and the rest of the time in the computer center with us. We had stoners. We had a handful of girls. It was a very diverse group that broke the sterotype and I loved it. I really am thankful to that man for bringing the future to my high-school so that many of us had a headstart in the industry ourselves.