Twenty-one high school students, college students and adult learners are one step closer to rewarding careers in the IT industry after receiving IT Student Merit Awards from the Computing Technology Association (CompTIA) Educational Foundation.

The CompTIA Educational Foundation IT Student Merit Awards recognize outstanding accomplishments by students and adult learners who have trained for and received CompTIA certification. Merit Award winners receive cash awards of $250 for use toward their continuing education. Funding for the awards comes from an industry endowment.

“Forecasts of shortages of qualified IT workers are predicted for the near future,” said John Venator, president and CEO, CompTIA. “Without a ready supply of trained, certified IT professionals to install, operate and maintain technology systems, we’re risking a slowdown in growth and innovation.”

CompTIA Educational Foundation IT Student Merit Award winners for Spring 2008 are:

Florida – Jesse Cleveland and Ian Hopkins, South Tech Academy, Boynton Beach

Massachusetts – Vinny DeOliveira, Keefe Technical School, Framingham

Michigan – Burt Carr, Michael Coble, Paula Coley, Marcalene Dickerson, Ali Haraj, Andrea Lewis and Nicholas Watson, Focus: HOPE Information Technologies Center, Detroit

Missouri – Chad Snow, Herndon Career Center, Raytown

New Jersey – Casey Collins, Joshua Crawford, Richard DeLeon, Manuel Gonzalez and Wackeem Stanley, Edison Job Corps, Edison

Pennsylvania – Jon Tice and Michael Vautrin, Monroe Career & Technical Institute, Bartonsville

Washington – Andrew Le and Glenn Nordman, Sartori Education Center, Renton

Wisconsin – Joseph Rawling, Waukesha County Technical College, Pewaukee