I learned a lot at METC this year and attended some great sessions, but I wanted to highlight one today that most of you missed: Graduating “Career-Ready” with Cisco Networking Academy. The session featured current students and graduates from North County Technical High School (some of those same wonderful kiddos who were providing tech support to all of the presenters…Shout out to my helper, J!), along with their instructor, Jim Elkins. With Cisco Networking Academy, these students can get Cisco certified while still in high school. Those who get certified are all making $50K/year before age 25. Jim’s students have been placed out of high school at AT&T, Scottrade, Centurylink (formerly SAVVIS) earning $26-40K/yr. The kids all said that the program is challenging, but that the draw of a successful career kept them motivated. Even for those kiddos who plan to attend college, the program seems to give them a real leg-up in their career paths. If you want to know more about bringing the program to your students, contact co-presenter Clydene Stangvik (cstangvi@cisco.com). I am already in the process of setting up a webinar with her for my administrators!