桑福德——信息技术让你头晕目眩. 这似乎是一种新的处理方式, 存储和使用数据每天都在不断涌现, 还有新的设备和系统来实现这一切. It's moving so fast that what you learn in the classroom gives you a solid foundation to understand the principles and roll with the change, even though the specific details of what you learn today could soon be obsolete.

对于许多刚进入这个领域的新人来说，这可能是一个真正的挑战, 但凯文·温德却不是, 他是思科系统公司的一名网络现场工程师, 这家生产尖端网络硬件的跨国企业集团, 软件和电信设备. 因为, while he's now spent more than five years as a Level 3 VSET Engineer for Cisco, Wind started his career at the very beginning of the technology revolution, 爬电线杆.

“1995年我高中毕业的时候, I never fathomed that I would ever use a computer in my entire life -- or even need to know keyboarding,风说。, a Virginia native who moved to Sanford when he was 10 years old and now lives in Broadway. "But then came the dot-com boom and I knew a lot of my peers were going to the little telephone school up on U.S. 1 .找到好工作. 所以，我说，‘为什么不呢?'"

That "little telephone school" began as a career training program at 中央卡罗莱纳社区学院, 学生在哪里学会爬电线杆, 铺设电缆和安装电话设备. 随着行业的发展, 这个项目也是如此, next becoming the North Carolina School of Telecommunications before that school closed, 重点转向中交信息技术, where students develop knowledge and hands-on skills to work in the computer industry.

风能或多或少地走了与该行业相同的道路. After finishing his telecommunications certificate a few years after high school graduation, he began with what he calls a "little short-term gig" installing PBX systems and fiber-optic cable in the Research Triangle Park. Then he did "a little tour" testing equipment with Motorola before moving to another company, 现在被称为Acuative, 处理DSL安装. 他在那里工作了将近14年, installing equipment and maintaining computer networks as everything evolved.

然后，是时候做出改变了.

"I was in my mid 30s going through some life changes and had an opportunity to go back to school,他回忆道. "I had some peers telling me about the networking program at Central Carolina and I knew I would never get out of field work unless I went back to school."

做出改变

大约八年前, 风带来了改变, returning to 推荐正规买球平台 to pursue his Associate of Applied Science in Network Technologies and even working at the college as a lab assistant. 康斯坦斯Boahn, 谁领导中交工程与计算机信息系, 温德回忆说，因为他总是帮助其他学生, 就像网络小组里的老大哥一样. "He was at a kind of middle age, so he wasn't fresh out of high school," she recalls. "He was old enough to have some life experience, but had not had a full career yet. 他真的很敬业."

For several years, Wind somehow managed to mix full-time work and full-time school. 在获得副学士学位两年后, he enrolled at East Carolina University to complete the Bachelor of Science in Information Technology, 博安和她的同事们鼓励他们的学生去攻读这个学位. She says the ECU network management program is designed for an easy transition -- it's available on campus or online, and the university accepts 推荐正规买球平台's entire computer degree as one block of credit, 让学生顺利获得学士学位.

Wind graduated from ECU about two years ago and now works full-time with Cisco as a contractor -- one of only 10 field technicians globally. When customers have a problem with the Cisco Unified Computing System that service technicians can't fix, company representatives escalate the case to Wind and his colleagues on Cisco's Virtual Support Escalation Team. 大多数时候, they can resolve the problem remotely; other times, 他们会去工地近距离观察.

这是一份有意义的工作. 而不是局限于一个狭窄的地理区域, Wind可能会与法国的客户同时工作, Russia or Brazil -- different kinds of people on different issues every day. 也不用爬过阁楼拉缆绳了. “如果没有中交，”温德说，“我永远不会走到这一步."

温德称自己是“样样通，样样不精”.“这也许是真的, but his extensive experience growing with the industry may have helped set him up for success. He says being able to visualize the telecommunications closets and data centers -- and knowing the nuts and bolts of hardware and how structured wiring moves from one place to another -- helps when he's trying to resolve more intricate problems. “我可以想象一切，”他说. "Some students may never see the hardware and may not even know how it's connected. That's helped me, being able to sit there and see in my mind how everything is connected."

留下印象

虽然温德倾向于淡化自己的成功，但其他人却不会. John Ainsworth was in his first year as a network management instructor at 推荐正规买球平台 when Wind showed up in his course on Cisco security and left a big impression. 直到今天, 安斯沃思和他的同事向其他学生描述了温德的成功, 不仅因为他在课堂上的成就, but for managing to complete his bachelor's degree while working full time.

“凯文的上限是他想要的，”安斯沃思说. “他有天赋和令人难以置信的决心. He's a humble guy and probably wouldn't expect his name to be invoked as a tool for inspiration and motivation, 但我们喜欢歌颂他."

When Wind first decided to try that "little phone school," he was more interested in biology. But he had to set priorities and at the top of that list was working to pay his own bills. As a teenager just out of high school, the cost of higher education seemed daunting. So did spending six or more years in school to earn the master's degree he thought he might need.

没有遗憾. 回顾这段旅程, Wind says he was blessed by the opportunities he's had through 推荐正规买球平台 and its partnership with ECU. 他做过一些很棒的工作. 他有很好的收入. 最重要的是，他喜欢诊断问题并找到解决办法. “丹尼·贝克, 谁开的电话学校, 告诉我们, “一旦你进入这个领域, 它会进入你的血液，并永远陪伴着你,’”Wind回忆道. “我想对我来说是这样."

For more information on 中央卡罗莱纳社区学院 - which is dedicated to providing pathways to achievable dreams, 访问 www.预备.edu.