The Woodlands, TX - July 21, 1997 - Six local high school students will receive scholarship grants totaling just over $2500 announced Vic Cherubini, President of the epic software group. All six are student interns who have worked for the company over the past year and contributed to its rapid expansion into the areas of multimedia production and web site design and development. The scholarship awards will go to: Michael Yantosca, Duke Banerjee, Jason Ford, Jonathan Larkin, Drew Creel and Travis Piney.
"Over the past seven years epic software has been fortunate to work with some of the area's best and brightest computer science students from the Academy of Science and Technology, The Woodlands High School and John Cooper, " said Cherubini. These students work part time for the company during the school year, and often full time during the summer months.
"The energy they bring to the office coupled with the speed at which they pick up new programming techniques is really awesome," said William Vaughan, the Creative Director for epic software. Vaughan works with 3D-design and character animation, and has no trouble getting the students to work with some of the complex software programs used to make feature movies, television ads, and computer games.
Epic software group presented awards to the following individuals:
Academy of Science & Technology:
Michael Yantosca - A Senior at Oak Ridge High School, Michael takes care of many of the advanced programming requirements at epic. Over the past year his analytical skills have helped the company solve some very challenging problems.
Duke Banerjee - Duke is also a Senior at Oak Ridge High School, and his background in Unix programming has allowed the company to offer its clients some advanced features in web site design. Duke will attending University of Texas at Austin in the Fall, and looks forward to a career in multimedia when he graduates.
Jason Ford - A Junior at Oak Ridge High School, Jason has embraced Macromedia Director, an advanced animation tool that is used to create interactive electronic catalogs and multimedia presentations. Not only can Jason work in an advanced programming language known as Lingo, but the Web site he created for the 1997 Science Fair took second place in its class. Jason intends to make a career in multimedia production.
Drew Creel - When epic needed an Intern to learn LightWave 3D, the animation program used to make such box office hits as Star Trek and Babylon 5, Drew answered the challenge immediately. A sophomore at Oak Ridge High School, Drew has also mastered Macromedia Director, and this summer will help produce a tutorial on animation and 3D design. Drew is currently a Life Scout well on the trail to Eagle.
The Woodlands High School:
Jonathan Larkin - Jonathan joined epic as a Junior from the John Cooper School, and now attends the Woodlands High School. Jonathan's skills in web site design and HTML coding are on par with many of the top developers in the country. John also enjoys camping and the outdoors and may be wearing an Eagle Scout badge by the end of this summer.
Travis Piney - Travis is a Sophomore and a recent transplant to the Woodlands from Huntsville. He is experienced in both Web design and is learning a variety of multimedia production tools and techniques. An Eagle Scout, his leadership skills have come into play when epic software sent him out to train and configure a program for environmental engineers.
