Accelerating innovation: The obstacle is the way

Easy does it. The obstacle is the way.

That catchphrase represents the summit that Hazem Said has ultimately scaled as a pioneering innovator who has dramatically streamlined and strengthened information technology (IT) education in Ohio — so much so that the state is now the national model that others look to.

The “easy” part in the phrase refers to how seamlessly the University of Cincinnati-led partnership network of high schools and community colleges work together, using existing resources, to enable thousands of teenage students access to affordable IT education, leading to baccalaureate and master’s degrees.

Admittedly, Said states he and his many partners eventually arrived to this seamless ease only after he himself first underestimated the distance and range and then subsequently scrambled, clambered, grasped handholds and, yes, had more than a few missteps along the way.

“I do have a pattern where I see a societal challenge and jump into addressing it, not seeing how high the mountains that I will need to climb,” admits Said, director of UC’s School of Information Technology housed within the College of Education, Criminal Justice and Human Services (CECH).

“That’s been the case when I opted to come to the United States to study, when I first moved from engineering into IT, when I first worked to merge computing technology programs into the IT discipline in a former UC college, and it was the same with the Early IT ecosystem we’ve now developed with 32 high schools and more than 12 community colleges in Ohio. I see challenges, thinking they’re a hill, and then I find they’re a mountain. But here I am climbing, so I might as well keep climbing.”

But in the end, it’s just this quality that’s been good for innovation.

Said’s latest brainchild publicly launched with a 2017 agreement between UC and Cincinnati Public Schools that provided 30 Hughes STEM high school first-year students a unique opportunity.

Throughout their high school careers, these students would have the opportunity to complete the first year of UC's bachelor of science in IT degree. These courses would be taught by their high school teachers after those teachers had completed 18-credit hours of UC-led training.

One of the very first students to enter the Early IT Program is Shantelle Love-Isham, a Hughes STEM High School junior. Before she joined the Early IT Program, she says, “College and the possibility of college was a long, dark tunnel for me. I couldn’t see a way where going to college was a path I would be able to take. The Early IT Program has given me that path. It’s that simple.”

Since 2017, this Early IT model has expanded to 32 high schools throughout Ohio and now includes a community college component as well with 12 community colleges throughout the state — encompassing a total of about 1,300 students.

While Said and others within UC were the initiators of the Early IT Program, the partners are critical, and according to Said, initially set the forward pace for ongoing implementation. It was deliberately set up that way because Said wanted to avoid tripping over obstacles he'd faced earlier in his academic career when pursuing ambitious heights.

“Years ago, in the early 2000s, I was driving the merger of computing technology programs from various units in the one-time College of Applied Science. There was a vision to build the IT discipline, and I was driving very fast. Really, I thought I was driving up a hill and didn’t see the mountains for that very hill. One day, my unit head had to come to me and said, ‘I need you to resign your position as coordinator.’ In retrospect, part of it was me not appreciating and realizing the importance of investing in building a team that I simply wasn’t harnessing as I should have,” he confesses.

It was just such experiences and obstacles that led Said to foster what he now calls a “people perspective” when surmounting challenges. This has contributed materially to the success of the Early IT Program, especially in terms of program design and execution around what’s best for all collective partners.

For instance, in planning to expand the Early IT Program throughout the state in 2018 and early 2019, Said organized a series of round tables to establish the community of partner entities and schools.

In the third such round table, held in spring 2019, something profound happened. One of those in attendance, Joel King, now assistant director of teaching and learning at Great Oaks Career Centers, prodded Said.

Teamwork is what makes the Early IT Program and UC’s School of Information Technology what they are.

The team of instructors includes industry veterans like Jim Scott, a UC alumnus and a former chief technology officer with The Kroger Company, who joined UC’s teaching ranks after retiring from his corporate career.

Scott leads the 155 IT seniors in their year-long capstone projects where he challenges them to hone their business acumen, problem solve and advance creative solutions in projects designed to set them apart as they prepare to graduate the university.

He underscores that he came to teach in the program in 2012 because of Said.

States Scott, “I’m here because of Hazem Said. I gravitate to people with big dreams and big vision, and I’ve never seen anyone to equal him in his drive to succeed. It’s too easy to be No. 2 or No. 3. That’s not the ethos here. He absolutely makes me a better teacher, so that in their final year here, I work with our students who transform to become our professional colleagues.”

“And we always celebrate that at the end of the year with Hazem cooking for days to create a wonderful Mediterranean feast, and we sit down to celebrate with our seniors – now our colleagues. ”

That dedication to goal — transforming students into colleagues — is so all-encompassing that Scott says that in all the many hours — from early morning to evening — in working with Said, he’d never seen his friend in anything but a formal suit and tie. And that includes during the end-of-year celebration cook out where Said is the chef.

That’s until one day in 2018, Scott was cycling on a local trail. He and his wife passed by another rider going in the opposite direction, wearing a T-shirt, sweat pants and tennis shoes.

Laughs Scott, “It wasn’t until we were loading up our bikes that I realized with some shock that it was Hazem! My wife passed first and didn’t recognize him. Then I rode by, and I didn’t recognize him either. And he’s my best friend! Until that moment, I had never known that the suit and tie wasn’t his second skin! He’s always working!”

No matter, Said laughs that Scott didn’t recognize him. The important thing, he maintains, is that neither one of them slowed their pace or hit the brakes. “Whether I’m working or riding and whatever I’m wearing, I plan to keep up the pace. No breaks or brakes.”

Featured image at top: Hazem Said, director of UC's School of Information Technology, addresses Akron's Kenmore-Garfield High School this past February when the school joined as a partner in the Early IT Program. Photo/Shane Wynn Photography

Professor and Director of UC School of Information Technology Hazem Said defines IT in 42 seconds flat.