We are thrilled to announce that over winter break, we had our first student take and obtain the IT Fundamentals Certification and we’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate Liberty High student Link Thornton on this accomplishment.
Over the course of a year, our staff from the Office of Technology and Innovation, in cooperation with Dell Technologies and Advanced Learning Partnership, used professional development days to create a Canvas course for students to obtain professional technology certification from CompTIA, the industry-leading certification association. The CompTIA IT Fundamentals course focuses on the IT skills and knowledge needed to perform tasks commonly performed by entry-level IT professionals.
We reached out to Link, a sophomore at Liberty High, to congratulate him and discuss the program, certification, and his plans for the future.
“Technology is my life,” said Link. “I was able to enroll in the student technician program and take apart, build, and repair computers. These opportunities and encouragement from the tech team combined with them waiving the fee for the certification were the reasons I was able to get this certificate. I hope to use this certificate on my resume and one day come back to take Kurtis’ job (Liberty High Building Technician).”
We are excited to support additional students as they work through our Canvas course and take the required CompTIA exam. Eli Middaugh is set to be the second student in the program to take the test later this spring. We also reached out to Eli to wish him good luck and ask him about what piqued his interest in the program.
“Initially, I started looking into becoming an electrical technician with the US Navy; this piqued my interest in technology,” said Eli Middaugh, senior at City High. “I had an open study hall and wanted to help fix computers, so I signed up to be a student technician. I plan to take this certificate, and use it to get a job this summer at Best Buy.”
We hope to extend additional certification opportunities in IT support, networking, and cybersecurity, and support more students as they obtain these valuable credentials.
While much of our department’s work is behind the scenes, it has been exciting and rewarding to provide opportunities for students to develop skills like problem-solving, troubleshooting, and customer service that will help them not only in the tech industry but in any career or post-secondary opportunities they choose to pursue.
A special thanks to Julie Foss, Gaynell Lyman, Frankie Jackson, and John Ross from Advanced Learning Partnership for their work on this project.