In Hispanic Heritage Month, we have fun all of our Hispanic college students and alums of Cisco Networking Academy’s IT skills-to-jobs program. Debbie Gomez is one super-inspired particular person who’s sharing her ardour for expertise in her communities. As Founding father of Networking Academy’s Ladies Rock-IT Program, I take nice pleasure in sharing the affect of this program with individuals like Debbie and the onflow affect they’ve of their communities.
“I’m not on the lookout for a job, I’m on the lookout for a profession.”
When “born and bred” Texan, Debbie Gomez, went from being a full-time mom of three youngsters to being a pupil at Collin County Neighborhood Faculty, you may be forgiven for considering it was a possibility to decelerate just a little.
Apparently, that’s not in Debbie’s DNA—getting concerned and serving to individuals is. At the same time as a college pupil, Debbie spent summers in Mexico studying Spanish from the native youngsters and instructing them English in return. It shouldn’t be a shock that when she enrolled in school, she would go all-in.
IT was Debbie’s first alternative
IT was Debbie’s first alternative, as a result of she had seen information tales in regards to the demand for cybersecurity specialists. “I’m not on the lookout for a job, I’m on the lookout for a profession,” she says. “Once I enrolled at Collin Faculty I began as a cybersecurity main, however after taking some NetAcad lessons I spotted that I’m actually keen on the blinking lights—the routers and the switches—a lot in order that I modified my main to pc networking.”
Assembly extra girls in IT
“I attended Ladies Rock-IT in my first semester, I met a whole lot of girls within the business, and one factor I actually liked is that they get to journey and work. I would like to have the ability to have that chance,” she says.
One other massive a part of the attraction to networking—and the Academy Program—was the hands-on expertise on supply.
Cybersecurity at Collin
“Cybersecurity at Collin is extra theoretical, and I used to be on the lookout for extra technical,” she says. “Once I was capable of mess around with the switches, easy methods to patch cables, all of that received my consideration…and there’s a whole lot of safety concerned in pc networking as nicely, it’s virtually just like the gatekeeper, in order that’s what I actually loved.”
Debbie says she’s not alone in switching from the four-year Cybersecurity Bachelor’s Diploma course at Collin to the two-year Laptop Networking Affiliate’s Diploma, and has even petitioned the faculty to develop the Bachelor’s program to incorporate pc networking. She’s hoping the faculty makes the change, although it could occur after she’s already accomplished her research. “It might be my legacy,” she says.
It wouldn’t be her solely legacy at Collin.
Networking with neighbors
When Debbie first began IT Necessities, she realized a whole lot of individuals had earlier expertise that she lacked. “Virtually all people that begins in tech has some kind of background in expertise,” she says.
“They’d in all probability constructed a pc. I had not. I’d by no means opened a pc earlier than. So, attempting to maintain up with the tempo of the category, and desirous to spend extra time on the gear, I made a decision I wanted one thing to mess around with at residence,” she says. She put a notification in her neighborhood app asking whether or not anybody had any gear to donate. “I didn’t care if it labored or not, I simply wanted to interrupt it aside.”
“I had an enormous response, there’s a whole lot of IT professionals who gave me switches, routers, wi-fi entry factors, a whole lot of stuff,” she says.
Membership collaboration at Collin
Patrick Evans, Self-discipline Lead – Laptop Networking Program, Collin County Neighborhood Faculty, says the response was in all probability so massive as a result of the Dallas space is a tech hub, housing quite a few acquainted tech companies, and even a giant Cisco Buyer Expertise Heart on the identical highway as one of many Collin Faculty campuses.
Beginning in with the gear in her storage, Debbie invited classmates to return over and collaborate, and, with the encouragement of Professor Evans, ultimately fashioned the Laptop Science and Engineering Membership.
The membership provides a platform for mentorship and networking and is extra in style than Debbie might have imagined. “I’ve by no means led a membership earlier than, we began very small, it was similar to 5 members,” she says. With greater than 200 present members, “we’re the largest membership proper now within the IT middle—we continue to grow!”
Debbie makes the Networking Academy Dream Workforce
If persevering with to take care of her household, learning, operating the membership, and a few internships weren’t sufficient, Debbie was additionally a part of the Dream Workforce at Cisco Stay in Las Vegas in June 2023.
The Dream Workforce consists of 5 Networking Academy college students who’re chosen from throughout the Americas, to work alongside Cisco engineers to assist arrange and preserve the community on the occasion.
“It was superior to study from the community engineers,” she says. “I’m so glad that Professor Evans taught me easy methods to patch cables…it got here in helpful, as a result of the opposite Dream Teamers had by no means achieved that earlier than. So I ended up displaying them easy methods to put an RG45 on a cable!”
“It was wonderful,” she says. “It was probably the greatest occasions of my life. It was assembly lots of people, assembly a whole lot of Cisco executives, studying from them, serving to arrange the community…it was very exhausting, nevertheless it was completely price it.”
Certifications to safe the dream
As if Debbie weren’t engaged sufficient, she has additionally accomplished the pre-apprenticeship part of the Cisco CX Apprenticeship Program. She achieved the required CCNA certification and is at the moment self-studying for the DevNet certification. DevNet is a requirement to finish in the course of the second half, which is six months full-time paid work as a Technical Consulting Engineer inside Cisco’s Buyer Expertise group. “My dream profession is to work for Cisco,” she says.
Within the meantime, she’s making ready to take CCNP, her remaining class at Collin Faculty earlier than commencement within the Spring of 2024.
If the sheer variety of actions Debbie has engaged in since returning to check appears overwhelming, she dismisses it breezily: “I’m from Texas,” she says, “go massive or go residence!”
Discover extra inspiring success tales at netacad.com/careers/success-stories.
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