HCCI-Cisco-HUD-CISNY Networking Lab
Opens in Harlem

March 25, 2002

Cisco Program Coordinator Valerie Jackson, CISNY Executive Director Dr. Roy J. Blash, HCCI Vice President of Human Services Paul Dunne, Cisco student Reginald Bowman and Queens College representative Alexis Greenidge gathered in front of the Networking Lab's computers, routers and switches.

A group of community advocates, technology specialists, educators and businesspeople gathered for an Open House at the new HCCI-Cisco-HUD-CISNY Networking Lab at the HCCI Career Development Center in Harlem today.

HCCI — the Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement Corporation — opened the high-tech lab with the partnership of Cisco Systems, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Communities in Schools, New York, Inc. 

The Networking Center provides students with four semesters of Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) training, totaling 280 hours.  Currently, the first group of nine students is in their third semester and is preparing to sit for the CCNA certification exam.

Future classes at the Networking Center may involve other types of Internet technology skills, including Web design, IT Essentials, Cabling, Java and UNIX.

In August of 1999, CISNY, Cisco Systems and HUD created a collaborative while attending a Cisco Networking symposium in Houston, Texas.   The group focused on the development of a Cisco Networking Academy that would be housed in a community-based organization.  In this fashion, the group felt they would be able to create the necessary social capital to alter the destinies of under/unemployed Harlem residents.

The banner of the HCCI Career Development Center on Frederick Douglass Boulevard, Harlem

Formed in 1986, HCCI is a diverse interfaith consortium of over eighty congregations established to revitalize the physical, economic and spiritual conditions of the Harlem Community.

Cisco Systems, Inc. is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet.  Cisco's vision is to lead to the creation of e-learning environments that transform the way people learn, in such programs as the Cisco Networking Academies.

Letter from an HCCI-Cisco-HUD-CISNY Networking Lab Student

To Whom It May Concern,

My name is Gustavo Martinez and in October of 2001 I began attending HCCI's offering of the Cisco Networking Academy Program.  I feel my participation and subsequent completion of this course opens the door to a world of opportunities I had no access to prior to my involvement in the program.  My current status is a rather dismal one: a routine and underpaying 9 to 5 administration position in the health industry, which severely limits my potential for growth, both mentally and financially.  Fortunately, this program has provided me the fuel with which to reach my goals.  Given my natural talents and inclinations, I find myself excited knowing what I can achieve with the information I have already acquired and will acquire from this program.  Under the expert tutelage of my instructors, with the theoretical and hands-on knowledge of routers and networking and designing provided, I am growing confident of my future role in the field.  I consider myself blessed for having been given this opportunity.

—Gustavo Martinez