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Jessica Griffin
Student
Hagerman High School
Career Quick Look
Age: 16
Location: Hagerman, NM
Education: CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate); High School diploma in progress
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Salary: $40,000 - ??
Years in field: 1
""Don't give up just because there's not a lot of women in the field," Jessica says. "We always hear this, but it's true: if a woman puts her mind to something, she can do it just as well as anyone.""
Getting Started:
"When I was a freshman," Jessica says, "our school's technology coordinator, Dan Jennings, asked me to take one of his Cisco certification classes. I agreed and took it for two semesters, then signed up again in my sophomore year." After the third semester, Mr. Jennings told the class that he had vouchers for anyone interested in attempting the Cisco exam, "so we could go and take it for free," she says. Jessica went with a group of fellow students in May of 2000 to the testing center at Eastern New Mexico University, where she was one of only two students who passed.
Education:
"This will be the third year our school has had the Cisco program," says Jessica, who has become a veteran of computer classes in her three years at Hagerman. "Mr. Jennings has something like nine different computer classes going on - and he has them all at the same time, so every class has a choice of which one they want to take. At any given time there's probably five, six, seven different classes going on," she explains.
Much of the class work is done in small groups, and involves lots of actual practice, she says. "We did a lot of labs on the router, and that really helped out a lot," she says, "because when it came to commands on the test, I actually knew them - not from the book but from learning them hands-on."
Having passed her networking exam, Jessica says she's enjoying the life of a regular high school student. "I'm just taking the required classes for juniors," she says.
Greatest Professional Achievement:
"My greatest achievement was actually passing the test," Jessica says, "because they told me at the exam center that I was the youngest CCNA they had ever seen, by several years."
Barriers:
Jessica says she had a difficult time grasping the 'sub-netting' concept when her class first encountered it. "It's used when you want to send out a broadcast, or whenever you're going to make sub-networks on a major network," she explains. "You have to use different numbers and things. It's not really that difficult a concept but I had a hard time with it at first." With a lot of persistence and practice, she says, "it finally clicked - and I was so happy! "
Working with Men:
"Originally," Jessica says, "I was one of the only girls in the tech classes." Once word got around about how much she liked it, she says, more and more female students signed up. "Right now I think there are four other girls in my class of ten people, so that's half the class. Nobody's scared of our tech guy anymore," she laughs. When it came time for the Cisco certification exam, the contingent from Hagerman High School was about evenly mixed, with three male and two female students taking the test. Jessica and a male exchange student were the only two who passed.
Advice for Women:
"Don't give up just because there are not a lot of women in the field," Jessica says. "We always hear this, but it's true: if a woman puts her mind to something, she can do it just as well as anyone." In her own case, she says, "I tried it and I beat two other guys out of it, so I think I did pretty well."
Typical Workday/Environment:
A typical day in her networking class "would start out with going over the curriculum, maybe a review," Jessica says, "and then mostly discussion over concepts that we didn't understand." Some days were curriculum or text-oriented, she explains, while others were more hands-on - which would prove important when it came to the exam. "On the days when we did router labs, it was kind of a group lesson," she says. "We all learned from each other, more than we learned from the curriculum itself."
Career Ladder:
Although Jessica is still a few years away from working, she has taken the opportunity to speak with computer technicians who visit her school. "When people are coming in to install our DSL system or some other kind of equipment," she says, "we talk about certification, and they tell me about their work day." Based on what she has learned so far, she says, "it sounds pretty good." Her current ambition is to become a teacher, but Jessica admits that technology will probably play a role in whatever she chooses to do. And she says, "If I decide that I want to go into something like Cisco, I have the certificate to say I'm qualified."
Professional Associations:
NA
Hobbies:
Outside of her regular studies, Jessica serves as president of her school's chapter of FFA (Future Farmers of America), edits the school newspaper, and lists horseback riding as one of her favorite pursuits. "I love reading," she says, "that's my passion. And I like to dance."
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