Ecuador – Escuela Superior Politecnica del Litoral
Patricia Chávez
Student Graduate
When Escuela Superior Politecnica del Litoral (ESPOL) conceived the idea of forming a Cisco Academy in the Faculty of Electric Engineering and Computation, there were a lot of efforts made to launch the Academy Program. We students were motivated by our professors, and by the second day of inscription, there were no open spaces for the first Cisco course.
I have been interested in the area of computer networking since the beginning of my academic career. When the engineer, Hernán Córdova, one of my professors in the university and my instructor in the academy, told me about the Cisco courses being offered at the Faculty, I thought that it was an excellent option—and I was right. I became one of the pioneer students at the ESPOL Cisco Academy.
The Cisco Program was not the first networking-related course that I had taken at the University, but it was the first course centered on a web-based curriculum. This was of great help because I could study and advance at my own pace. I connected to the Internet daily from our department’s computer laboratories in order to study, and I found that this method of operation reinforced good study habits. Of course, the support offered by our instructor was very important, any doubts that we could have were clarified. He always challenged us to go further into the curriculum and to investigate and practice by ourselves, especially the sub-netting exercises and trouble shooting with the assistance of the emulators. The Program became so popular that 2 new classes had to be opened right away due to the great demand of students. But the wait was worthwhile. The new laboratories were bigger and better equipped. We also began a classroom tradition of playing Jeopardy and sessions of debate, which contributed to a dynamic learning environment.
Once our Semester IV class had concluded, several of the students, including myself, took the CCNA certification exam. We all passed the exam, which reflected the good performance of our academy. Now I know much more about networking, and I have had the opportunity to resolve typical networking problems and to practice with real equipment. I feel that this knowledge and practice will help me in my professional life. What I learned at the Academy will help me a lot in the future, not only with respect to my career, but in my personal life as well. I can apply problem-solving methods learned at the academy to all areas of my life. My experience at the ESPOL Academy has been an enriching and unique experience.