Calvin Coolidge wrote: "Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education alone will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."

We could build a perfect path toward becoming an IT professional, but, as with many other professions or anything that truly matters, there is hardly a mystically lighted way; instead, there are mundane requirements: a little talent and genius, mixed with some education, and, ultimately, persistence.

Take Johnson Nguyen, a 17-year-old with an unadjusted 3.98 GPA--a "B" in an advanced Cisco Networking Academy course that the rest of the class failed killed his 4.0--and a 1,400 SAT score. Johnson has won science fairs and programmed robots, but he's not all geeked out. He has mentored incoming freshmen, captained his varsity tennis team, run cross-country and served as senior class treasurer. He got his Cisco certification and took Oracle Data Modeling and SQL Programming.

The advisory board for the Foundation for Future Technology Leaders, a nonprofit corporation Network Computing launched last year, has chosen Johnson as its first scholarship recipient, bestowing $10,000 toward his quest, which he is actively fulfilling today as a freshman at Cornell University. You can read about his journey from time to time on our Web site.

When I made one of the most satisfying phone calls of my life to award him the scholarship this summer, I interrupted his all-day, eight-week Solaris Academy class, which he took despite being 130 credits over the norm for graduating seniors.

Johnson's credentials are impressive and his essay was incisive, but he was by no means an easy choice. Kenia Rodriguez, an 18-year-old Bolivian, was also an amazing candidate. She has a penchant for community service, stupendous grades and a couple of Microsoft certifications. That she is female served as a strong reminder that change is being made in this male-dominated field. Senior technology editor Dave Molta, an assistant professor at Syracuse University's School of Information Studies, told me a record number of young women enrolled in the school this semester.

But what impressed the advisory board most about the candidates weren't the grades or the SAT scores, but the students' determination to get certifications early, to get involved in their communities and to doggedly pursue a career in IT. You'd be wise to hire any of them.

I asked Nguyen what he would do with his first million, and with all the practicality of a wise young college-bound student, he vowed to help his family and pay off his loans. With all the idealism of his youth, he vowed to help the homeless, the hungry and animals. And with all the ambition of most of us, he vowed to live in a huge house "designed by me and fully equipped with the weirdest, most up-to-date technology, exactly like the Jetsons.' I loved their house with a passion." Welcome to the world, young scholar.