E mmanuel Barnes, spouse of an active duty soldier and teacher to underprivileged students, pursued his Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA®) certification at Fayetteville Technical Community College in Fayetteville, North Carolina, with the goal of helping young people succeed in the technology. Emmanuel says, “I credit the Cisco® Networking Academy®  training for giving me the basics for developing my troubleshooting skills and the confidence to teach others what I know. The hands-on network training gained through the Networking Academy gave me the confidence needed to take such a giant leap of faith.”

“I taught myself what I needed” is Emmanuel’s characterization of his computer training prior to entering the CCNA course in the Cisco® Networking Academy®  in fall of 2004. “I’d never taken any formal computer training before coming to Fayetteville Technical Community College.”

Before moving to North Carolina, Emmanuel was teaching Washington D.C. youth about computers and software. He was in the process of learning new skills to teach music production and computer graphics as a career path for underprivileged kids to help them become productive citizens and get them off the streets. Then, his wife was reassigned to Ft. Bragg, North Carolina and Emmanuel decided to take that opportunity to pursue formal computer training, thinking he may one day return to D.C. area where he could use his increased knowledge to better prepare children for the future.

After moving to North Carolina, Emmanuel began taking introductory courses in computers, programming and networking during his first year at Fayetteville Technical Community College. In his second academic year, he enrolled in CCNA classes through the Networking Academy. Emmanuel’s CCNA instructor remembered, “I was impressed by Emmanuel the very first day of class. He told me that he would be my best student. He worked very hard all year to live up to that promise.” “Working hard” describes Emmanuel’s life during his wife’s deployment to Iraq. During that time, Emmanuel found himself trying to balance his continued CCNA coursework while at the same time having to work a part time job as a lab technician and taking on the role of single parent to his toddler and newborn.

Only a week after completing the Networking Academy, Emmanuel was hired by Lafayette Business Machines as a sales manager and solutions engineer. “When Emmanuel came here he applied for a technical position, but I was also looking for someone to support our sales team. I knew he had the background I was looking for given his training and leadership skills. The position was an ideal marriage for him to leverage his technical and interpersonal skills. He has not let me down” said Curtis Estep, president of Lafayette Business Machines.

Emmanuel will move back to the Washington D.C. region in June 2007, and will continue to pursue his dream of starting an organization to teach technology skills to D.C. youth and young adults.

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site created:  07/13/2006    revised:  07/13/2007