200-901 action - DevNet Associate (DEVASC) Updated: 2023

Defense personnel are often unsung heroes—potentially putting their lives on the line to serve their communities. Giving back to those who choose to serve, or are transitioning out of the armed forces, is clearly the right thing to do. We’re proud that Cisco Networking Academy partners with organizations around the world looking after the unique needs of current and former military service people.

Training-up down under

Soldier On is a not-for-profit organization delivering support services that enable current and former Australian Defence Force personnel—and their families—to lead meaningful civilian lives. It does this by providing psychology support services, employment support, education programs, and community-building activities.

Amy Cooper, CEO of Soldier On, is particularly aware of those needs—her father-in-law and partner are respectively former and current Australian Defence Forces personnel. Amy also sits on the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide reference committee, which gives her an even greater insight into the challenges facing current and former veterans and their families.

In Australia, a Royal Commission is a public hearing, independent of government, with broad powers to summon witnesses or seize documents and receive public submissions. The Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide was established in 2021 to inquire into systemic issues and risk factors relevant to veteran deaths by suicide, or other lived experience of suicide risk factors, and to provide a systemic analysis of the contributing factors. To date, the Commission has received more than 4,000 submissions.

Unique challenges

“One of the interesting pieces that have come out of the Royal Commission is the fact that around 80 percent of the veterans go on to have really successful civilian lives,” says Amy. “Unfortunately, 20 percent face really significant challenges.”

She says this is significant because an increasing number of service people are transitioning out of the armed forces. “Those numbers have traditionally tracked around the 5,000 mark,” she says. “This year it’s anticipated it will be closer to 7,000 people making that transition, and that number has risen over the last three years.”

“We’re also seeing trends with younger veterans discharging, so from an increased number from 25-year-olds right up to mid-30s, which changes the nature of the support that might be required for transitioning veterans.”

Soldier On is supporting around 11,000 service people, veterans, and their families this year, with programs designed to aid with health and wellbeing, employment support, and education, as well as helping make connections within the community.

Values-driven

“What attracts people to serve their nation is often very values-driven,” says Amy. “It’s about being able to serve and support the community and often they’re looking for roles that have that same altruistic service or are an intrinsic value to them.”

“Cisco Networking Academy is a strong part of our mission, particularly for our veterans and family members to thrive,” she says. “It is really focused on that positive aspect of being able to offer practical support through a range of education opportunities that the partnership provides… the courses have been a great opportunity to get many of our participants into the IT industry.”

“The very nature of the program, being very skills directed, provides good options for participants as they balance serving, or starting to think about that transition time, which is often a very busy time with relocating,” says Amy. “I think that’s a tremendous investment in veterans and their families.”

Helping veterans around the world

Soldier On is not alone in its mission to help veterans transition into new careers. In the UK, TechVets is another Cisco Networking Academy partner that helps more than 20 people per month to start new careers in IT. TechVets was founded to address a fast-growing skills gap with the rise of tech, and a national issue with unemployment and underemployment within the British Military Forces community.

And in the US, Cisco—which has consistently been recognized as a Top 10 Military Friendly Employer—has a range of veteran programs to assist veterans transitions into meaningful IT careers, including Onward to Opportunity, a program run by Syracuse University’s D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) to help service members, veterans, and spouses on their journey to meaningful employment after military service.

IVMF is also a Cisco Networking Academy partner, dedicated to serving military personnel and part of CyberVetsUSA, a fully-sponsored “veterans-first” workforce development initiative, do amazing work helping veterans transition into in-demand tech jobs.

Cisco also runs CX Apprenticeship Programs in the US and India to develop networking skills for non-traditional candidates leading to the opportunity to interview for the highly technical, customer-facing role of a Technical Consulting Engineer in Cisco’s Customer Experience organization. Around a third of the current cohort are veterans.

Cisco Networking Academy success stories

In France, Arnaud found he wasn’t academically-inclined and joined the Army, where he realized that his colleagues’ lives depended on reliable communications. After serving his country, Arnaud knew his future was in IT, and after undertaking Cisco Networking Academy training now works for a French ISP as a Network Engineer.

Vanessa was in the Brazilian Army while doing postgraduate studies in Computer Networks. Unfortunately, that knowledge wasn’t required for her job. After leaving the Army she became interested in cybersecurity, eventually taking the CyberOps Associate course with Cisco Networking Academy and landing a job as a cybersecurity analyst.

Michael joined the fire service to contribute to his community, but was called up twice to serve in Iraq. An injury ultimately ended his firefighting career, leading him to pursue a career in cybersecurity incident response. Through Cisco Networking Academy training, Michael has found a new passion in the field, driven by his commitment to service and continuous learning.

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London 2012 sponsor Cisco is being sued after launching a global campaign that used the endline, "tomorrow starts here", which aimed to show how Cisco’s services connects people and businesses.

The "Internet of things" campaign, created by Goodby Silverstein & Partners, launched on 10 December and features broadcast advertising and digital activity with an estimated media spend of $100m (£62m).

East Carolina University (ECU) is pursuing legal action because it has a federally-registered trademark for the "tomorrow starts here" slogan, in order to protect the university’s "identity and vision".

Steve Ballard, chancellor at ECU, said: "ECU has used the mark ‘Tomorrow Starts Here’ for over a decade, including in national advertisements and publications such as Forbes and Wired.

"We feel it is essential to take action to protect that defining trademark of our identity and vision."

ECU claims its trademark is a university-wide brand that represents an "overlapping field of goods and services when compared with that of Cisco".

The ECU’s College of Technology and Computer Science has created intellectual property that is in the process of commercialising with a particular emphasis on "distance education technology".

Cisco has responded by claiming it is "surprised" by the complaint because it is "confident our new campaign does not create any confusion in the marketplace".

Earning specialized certifications is a surefire way to advance your career in the IT field, regardless of industry or current career level. The right certification validates your skills and knowledge, which makes you more desirable to future employers who want to attract and retain the best employees. Below, we’ll explore the top IT certifications and share how to examine your goals to choose the right path forward. 

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Dr. Pablo Molina serves as Drexel's Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and Associate Vice President (AVP). He leads the University Information Security Team, which oversees University-wide security policies and controls. Dr. Molina has made his team's mission "to protect the people, the information, and the systems of Drexel University." His team has pursued this initiative through security awareness training, compliance, and risk assessments.

Dr. Molina holds a Doctorate degree on the adoption of technology from Georgetown University and an MBA from Saint Louis University. He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional, as well as a Certified Information Privacy Professional. While at Georgetown University, he received 14 national awards (3 from the university), including Outstanding Faculty Member in 2012. He was the recipient of the 2006 CIO Magazine Ones to Watch Award and the Standout Achievement Award as Innovator, and he was recognized in 2007 as one of the Top 40 Under 40 IT Innovators by ComputerWorld. In 2013 and 2014 (and again for 2019), Dr. Molina was the recipient of the HITEC 100 Awards, which is comprised of the 100 most influential and notable Hispanic professionals in the technology industry.

In addition to his expertise in cybersecurity methodology, Dr. Molina has an extensive background in the ethics of technology and information management. He is the founder and executive director of the International Applied Ethics and Technology Association and is on the board of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. He regularly comments on stories about privacy, the ethics of tech companies, and laws related to technology and information management—including net neutrality, Web sites and tech companies protecting user data during investigations, and the ethics of the President’s election commission requesting state voter data.

Dr. Molina is also an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, where he teaches graduate courses in ethics and technology and in information security. He was the CIO at the Association of American Law Schools from 2014-17, CIO at Southern Connecticut State University in 2013-14, and associate vice president for information technology and campus CIO from 2000-2012 at Georgetown University. Prior to that, he worked as director of information technology for the University of Pennsylvania, lecturer/director of information systems for Washington University in Saint Louis, and senior lecturer for the University of Missouri in Saint Louis. Before his career in academia, he was MIS manager at the Saint Louis Zoo. Previously, he built a technology company in Madrid, where he also served as editor-in-chief of computer magazines, authored several books on technology, and taught information technology at the Escuela de Hacienda Publica.

Cornell University students called on administrators to take action against a professor who said he was “exhilarated” by Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel that left more than 1,400 people dead.

The comments were made by associate professor of history Russell Rickford Sunday at an off-campus rally connected to Cornell’s Students for Justice in Palestine group, according to one attendee.

Netanel Shapira, 21, a student with dual Israeli citizenship, filmed the viral clip of the off-campus rally. Shapira said he attended the event in an effort to “hear both sides” and to take the temperature of denizens of the leafy liberal college town of Ithaca, NY.

Shapira, who studies economics and government at the university, said he had heard from fellow students that associate professor of history Russell Rickford was “not shy about his extremism” in the classroom, but was unprepared for his apparent full-throated endorsement of Hamas’ massacre.

“This guy essentially outright said that he was happy, exhilarated, excited, energized, right, by the murder of innocent civilians. The massacre of civilians and the raping of women,” Shapira said.

“There’s no place for that anywhere for any group of people, then of course in that video at the end of it the crowd starts chanting ‘From the River to the Sea’.. itself an antisemitic and genocidal chant.”

Shapira and his friend left the rally soon after the “small” crowd began calling for the eradication of Israel.

“How can you possibly feel safe? That’s like textbook, the first steps to the incitement of violence.”

Amanda Silberstein, 21, was “deeply disgusted” when Rickford’s remarks first circulated in the university’s Jewish community groups.

Follow along with The Post’s live blog for the latest on Hamas’ attack on Israel

“Seeing that video, my initial reaction was ‘this is a professor, this is an educator, you know, students are supposed to internalize and respect, you know, the words their professor says,'” said the Englewood, NJ native, who is studying hotel administration and hospitality.

“It was really really shocking and his words have meaning. This isn’t some far-away idea; we’ve been seeing it at happen on Columbia’s campus, at Harvard, at NYU,” she added, referencing other embraces of terrorism at top-tier schools in the region.

“If your professor is commending a group for doing something, you might look up to that group and think it’s the right course of action.”

Neither Rickford nor Cornell SPJ responded to a request for comment from The Post, but the controversial professor did speak Monday to The Cornell Daily Sun, where he refused to walk back his rhetoric.

“What I was referring to is in those first few hours, when they broke through the apartheid wall, that it seemed to be a symbol of resistance, and indeed a new phase of resistance in the Palestinian struggle,” Rickford reportedly said.

Looking to help? Donate here to UJA-Federation of New York’s emergency fund to supply critical aid to the people of Israel, working with a network of nonprofits helping Jewish communities around the world.

“We are acutely aware of the devastation, the daily destruction and degradation caused by Israeli policies, caused by Israeli apartheid, caused by the occupation. So in that context, this act of defiance of boring across the wall was a significant symbol,” said the professor, while adding he “abhor[s] the killing of civilians.”

Silberstein said that she was also “mourning” the 3,000 people in Palestine who had been killed amid retaliatory airstrikes, saying “nobody wants innocent civilians to be murdered.”

However, she said it was “impossible to equate the IDF’s retaliatory actions with Hamas’ brutal terror, adding, “while the IDF’s sole mission is to protect the people of Israel, Hamas terrorists seek to eliminate all Jews.”

Rickford’s words “can only exacerbate the risk of further violence and foster more animosity against the Jewish community,” Silberstein said, also taking issue with the group’s “Free Palestine” chant.

“I think that calling for the destruction of Israel is calling for the destruction of all of its people, the displacement of its people,” she said.

“My grandfather was a Holocaust survivor and the dream of a Jewish state is quite literally what kept him alive through Auschwitz and the death march. Being able to see that dream realized [in 1948] made all his suffering worth it for him.”

Silberstein called on Cornell to “reevaluate [Rickford’s] position,” while also bashing the university for a “morally repugnant” initial email that was sent to all students by President Martha Pollack, which compared the terror attack with the recent “terrible earthquake in Afghanistan” without condemning Hamas.

Sam Aberman, the Cornell student who posted a clip of the speech on X that had garnered some 12 million views by Tuesday afternoon, told The Post that “allowing professors and other people in positions of power to support, promote, and even celebrate a hateful terrorist group, like Hamas, after they committed indescribable atrocities on innocent people creates an unsafe environment on college campuses.”

Shapira was more direct in his message to administrators, who labeled Rickford’s remarks “reprehensible” in a statement to The Post Tuesday afternoon.

“To me, this university cannot act in any other way other than firing [Rickford.] There’s no other solution that will satisfy,” he said.

“Any members of our community who have made such statements do not speak for Cornell; in fact, they speak in direct opposition to all we stand for at Cornell,” said Pollack and Board of Trustees Chair Kraig H. Kayser.

“The university is taking this incident seriously and is currently reviewing it consistent with our procedures.”