As a rule, Central Bank doesn't give tours of its Technology Services operations in the southern part of Jefferson City. But 20 high school students attending Linn State Technical College's "Computer Professions on Demand" program are an exception.
And the CTS building was one of six stops Tuesday as the students saw a variety of examples of how technology is used in today's world.
"We're hoping to open their eyes to the variety of career opportunities in the IT fields," said Stephanie Scheulen, an Enrollment Management associate in Linn State's Admissions office, and an activities coordinator for the annual CPoD camp. "We just went to a professionals' panel, and they got to hear not only from programmers, developers and your typical IT professionals - but also someone from the telecom field who does climb the telephone poles and does the IT work outside."
Jill Hansen, Central Technology Services senior vice president for application development, has worked with the CPoD program for most of its 13 years.
"This is a big deal for Jeff City, and for me as a business person - because it's getting these kids educated on the great technology that's available in Jeff City - that, hopefully, some day they can come back and work here," Hansen said.
"A lot of them don't know that there's great opportunities here, and they think they need to go to a big city or somewhere in order to be employed in the IT area."
Hansen gave a short presentation on Central Technologies' operations, how it serves all of Central Bancompany's 13 different banks, with 140 total locations in four different states.
One of the important messages to the high school students is to learn how to be flexible in a constantly changing field, Hansen said.
"What my staff learned today is outdated," she explained. "But, I think, the thought is that we would try to orient students to that general type of work. Is it web work? Is it forensic work? Is it network work? Is it programming?
"All those opportunities are out there - and if you expose students to them, then they make the decision of, "This is something that, no matter how it changes, I still want to do this.'"
Matt Spencer, 17, will be a senior this fall at Linn High School.
"I've always been interested in computers," he said, "and I just thought maybe I could see what I was really interested in, by going through the program.
"A lot of the networking stuff I didn't think I'd like - but it's actually really interesting. And there's a lot more to programming than I actually knew. There's a lot more languages."
Scheulen noted the information technology fields are going to keep growing and changing. "It's very exciting," he said. "It is very important for the students of today to learn these new technologies, to help our lives be more efficient."
The four-day CPoD program plays an important role in helping "these students to get the educational background they need, and keep moving us forward," Scheulen said.
Brenna Scott, 17, is a senior who's being home schooled.
"I might be more likely to go into something involving robotics, but I haven't really decided, yet," she said - noting that some of the sessions she's attended have helped her concentrate more.
"There was one talk that pretty much boiled down to, "Train yourself to be able to focus on one things for at least 20 minutes at a time, and just be able to set aside everything else you're doing and might be thinking about,'" Scott said.
Fatima High School senior Drew Angerer, 17, said the program has "been a great time. I didn't think that this would be that much fun, but I met a couple of friends here, and we've had a bunch of laughs and stuff."
Area businesses help pay for the CPoD program and provide people to help teach the students.
"This is a free camp for these kids," Hansen said. "It is an investment for our companies in Jeff City, or that work with us in Jeff City.
"And it's a great investment for our future."