Ready, set, code: NMC IT Olympics
Tenth annual competition spotlights high school IT students; hard and soft skills required
TRAVERSE CITY — More than 100 high school IT students will test their skills at halting hackers, composing code and working under pressure at NMC’s tenth annual IT Olympics, set for May 7 on main campus.
Teams from dozens of schools from Elk Rapids to Cadillac and Mesick to Traverse City are expected to compete in the 2025 event, which consists of four timed challenges: web design, programming, network/security and an IT technical challenge.
The IT Olympics began in 2016, with infrastructure students from Northwest Ed’s Career-Tech Center. It was expanded to include application and web programming students in 2017. In 2018 it again grew to include the Wexford-Missaukee school district. Stephanie Cardwell, a 2014 NMC IT graduate who is now senior network engineer and team lead at Munson Healthcare, is one of the judges.
“It’s important for me to give back to NMC because NMC has done so much for me,” Cardwell said of why she volunteers for the day. Her mother was one of NMC’s first female IT graduates, in the 1990s. Her grandmother also attended NMC, becoming the first woman in the family to earn a college degree.
“We’re three generations of women at this point,” Cardwell said. “Third generation NMC, graduating and really improving our lives as a result.”
She also enjoys seeing the creativity of the students in their responses to the challenges. All team members must compete in at least two of the four challenges. The competition is designed to challenge students to apply both their soft and technical skills. Cardwell stressed that soft skills, like working as a team, communication and presentation are as important as the technical skills.
“Unless you’ve got those soft skills, no one’s going to want to work with you,” she said.
NMC CIT program director Scott Goethals said the Olympics and Industry Night Out, another department event celebrating its tenth year, serve to recruit students to NMC’s program.
“The key for us is building a relationship with the students,” he said. “We want them to get to know the faculty and to learn more about our programs. By building this relationship, we hope they will consider our CIT program when they finish high school.”
IT Olympics opening ceremonies begin at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, May 7 in the James Beckett building on NMC’s Front Street campus. Closing ceremonies will be held from 2:15-3 p.m., with prizes awarded for the first, second and third place teams.
Release date: APRIL 29, 2025
For more information:
Cari Noga
NMC Communications Director
cnoga@nmc.edu
(231) 392-1800 (Call or text)