
DATE: Sunday, November 9, 1997              TAG: 9711090029

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LORRAINE EATON, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   85 lines

STUDENTS' WEB SITE MAY OPEN COLLEGE DOORS

In June, Brian McDermott walked into his cousin's house, turned on the computer and spent the rest of his summer vacation peering into the glowing screen.

While many students pen endless essays on arcane subjects to win college scholarships, Brian went high-tech. Across cyberspace, the 14-year-old assembled a team of three students. Together they built a Web site to enter in ThinkQuest '97, a high-tech competition that awards $1 million in scholarships.

``It was very time-consuming, but it's worth it,'' said Brian, giving an uncharacteristically long response from someone who prefers online communication.

The Cox High School freshman's team included Old Dominion University freshman Jason Boyer and a cousin, Andrea McDermott, 13, of New York City. The team has advanced to the semi-finals.

Their Web site, titled ``The Professional,'' offers a step-by-step process designed to ``rescue'' teens who are at risk of having other people (such as parents) make their career choices for them. The site has logged 10,000 hits.

Starting at a page titled an ``Assessment of You,'' students can gauge their aptitude for careers by taking a few quizzes. For art occupations it asks: ``Do you want to become famous in your field?'' For accounting it asks: ``Do you like working at a desk?'' Results are tabulated with the click of a mouse. Scores of less than 70 percent result in advice to find another field of interest.

The site offers a secret to getting experience while in high school. A link called ``Selling Yourself,'' gives straight-up advice on resume writing and interviewing. There are interviews with a variety of professionals, job listings and a spot where adults can add their job descriptions to the database.

The sophisticated Web site had a very down-to-earth beginning. In the spring, Brian distributed surveys to teachers at Cox High to determine what careers interested students. He also distributed fliers door to door, asking neighbors if they'd be willing to participate in his project.

Brian knew he had a lot to learn before he could even begin to build a really good, interactive Web site. So he spent the summer in Maryland at the home of his cousin, John Verde. John is a cyber-superstar who, along with Brian's sister, Robin, was a finalist in ThinkQuest '96.

John taught Brian hypertext markup language, which is used to create Web sites. He learned about Java, a program that can make logos move and pictures appear at the click of a mouse.

And it wasn't just two or three hours a day that they worked.

``It was all day,'' Brian said.

Every day?

``Every day,'' he said.

The annual contest is sponsored by Advanced Network & Services, Inc., a New York-based, nonprofit educational organization that promotes the use of computers in the classroom.

The companies encourage teachers to access students' Web sites and use them in teaching.

The top prize in this year's competition is $25,000 for each team member. Coaches get $5,000, as do the students' schools. Other student prizes range from $15,000 to $3,000.

This is the second year of the contest and the growth has been phenomenal, said Robert F. Steen, vice president of the sponsoring company. It has been expanded to make it an international competition.

A total of 750 ThinkQuest sites are on the Web, all built by students ages 12 to 19. Sites involve subjects such as sports, physics, the stock market and Macbeth. Visits to the sites have increased from 1 million one year ago to 5.5 million today.

``It's just wild,'' Steen said. ``Not just the counts. The most amazing thing is how well these sites are made and how educational they are.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

CHARLIE MEADS, The Virginian-Pilot

Brian McDermott, 14, left, and two other students are competing in

ThinkQuest '97, a high-tech competition that awards $1 million in

scholarships. The team and its Web site, ``The Professional,'' have

advanced to the semi-finals. The event is sponsored by a nonprofit

educational organization that promotes the use of computers in the

classroom. Brian's sister, Robin, right, and a cousin were finalists

in ThinkQuest '96.

Graphic

ADDRESS

For information about ThinkQuest '98, or to browse the ThinkQuest

library, locate the site (http://www.advanced.org/thinkquest/) on