Eli Tsukayama

I participated in TechQuest in 2000 and 2001. Both times were exceptionally positive experiences. Most high school competition/exhibitions are only for public or private school students. TechQuest is the only competition/exhibition that I know of for K-12 grade students that also welcomes home schooled students.

I only started getting interested in computer technology at the beginning of 2000, but being home schooled allowed me to focus a lot of time to study and learn about computers and their related fields. Computer hardware was my strong point, and I got my A+ certification in July 2000. I heard about TechQuest in August 2000 (on Peter Kay’s “Your Computer Minute”), but I knew next to nothing about Networking, Application development, and Multimedia. The next time I heard about TechQuest was in the Honolulu Advertiser in September 2000. I finally decided to enter after I read about the “success stories” that some of the participants had. I decided to learn HTML and make a website on computer hardware. Since I had only one month to learn HTML and make a website, I dedicated all my free time to my project. In one month, I learned more than just HTML; I learned sacrifice, dedication, and critical thinking.

When I finally got to TechQuest, I wasn’t disappointed. I got to meet and talk with several other kids my age who were interested in the same things and who were “on the same level” as I was. The other exhibits were interesting but above all they were educational. By the time judging came around, I didn’t care if I placed or not. One of the judges was so impressed with my website that he gave me a perfect score. Another judge, Shakil Ahmed, asked me to stop by his company to see if I wanted to work there. The job offer was what I wanted; it gave me an opportunity to get hands-on experience, something that I could not learn from a book.

I didn’t expect to win at TechQuest—which was good, because I didn’t—but I didn’t mind since I got so much more out of TechQuest than just prize money or temporary fame.

By the time TechQuest 2001 came around, I knew a lot more about networking. I got my Network+ certification in November 2000, and I became a MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) in April 2001. This time, I decided to enter the Networking division with a VPN (Virtual Private Network) project. TechQuest was still a positive experience, but several things went wrong. My computer died the night before setup, my friend’s VPN server which was working two hours before judging stopped functioning, and finally my cell phone, which I used as a modem, died during judging. Murphy’s law: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Before the competition, I had high hopes of placing, but after the series of unlucky events, my hope fell to nothing. TechQuest 2002 was far from a personal loss; I ended up winning one of the $1500 “TechQuest scholarships”. I also discovered later that I was only one point away from 2nd place, so in a sense, I was third place, but I didn’t get anything since 2nd place was already a two-way tie. This time, I was a little disappointed that I didn’t place since I knew I had a good chance, but once again I was satisfied with everything I got from of TechQuest.

In this case, failure was good for me, because I learned that sometimes bad things happen and there’s nothing you can do about it. I also learned socialization and presentation skills from TechQuest. TechQuest helped transform me from being shy and introverted to being friendly and outgoing. I learned many important life skills from attending TechQuest.