Success Stories
July 28, 2005
To Whom It May Concern:
I have worked with Bill Cullifer, Executive Director of the World Organization of Webmasters (WOW), for the past four years. The Fundamentals of Web Design curriculum, formerly sponsored by Adobe Systems, and offered through the Cisco Networking Academy Program, was aligned to the WOW Certified Web Designer Apprentice/Associate certification. WOW certification exams proved to be valuable for students seeking employment in Web design.
Bill worked diligently with the VUE testing centers to ensure that Academy students and instructors had opportunities to take the certification exam throughout the United States. In addition, WOW offered numerous training scholarships within several Academies, as well as a discount on the certification for Academy students who passed the course.
Cisco also worked with WOW to co-sponsor the first Web Design contest for Academies teaching the Fundamentals of Web Design course. The contest provided an exciting opportunity for students and instructors to simulate a real-world web site development experience. The emphasis was on a balance of skills, excellence in content and quality of work and design, with the added advantage of providing a service to the community. Teams of four students and one instructor created a web side for a non-profit agency or academic institution for the skills competition, and the web sites were judged according to the criteria in the contest guidelines. Semi-finalists for the contest were announcement at the Cisco Academy Conference in Orlando, FL in June 2003, and the winner was announced at the National Education Computing Conference (NECC) later in June 2003.
Adobe Systems made a business decision to end their sponsorship of the Fundamentals of Web Design curriculum in June 2004. In an effort to provide additional support for the program, Bill worked with a member of the Cisco team to explore other opportunities for continued funding. This curriculum has been extremely popular with our Academy Community and still has over 900 Academies offering the course. It also attracts a high percentage of females, and with Cisco’s emphasis on attracting more women to the field of Information Technology, this has been an added benefit.
Cisco has been and continues to be very appreciative of all the efforts on the part of Bill Cullifer and WOW. WOW is very supportive of the Cisco Networking Academy Program and has never failed to respond to questions or requests.
If you have questions or need additional information, please feel free to contact me.
Sincerely,
Judy Roberts
Cisco Systems, Inc.
Cisco Networking Academy Program
Voicemail: 410-309-4818
Mobile: 443-310-5674
Email: jurobert@cisco.com