Ye Jing, 25 years old and married can boast of several accomplishments at a very young age. When she became her school's first Cisco Networking Academy student, she could not have possibly known it would lead her to address a special session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
While Ye Jing was pursuing a Master's degree in computer networks and digital communication at UESTC, the university established the first Cisco Networking Academy Program in Southwest China with funding from a government program called the China Education and Research Network. Initially Ye Jing signed up for the program because she wanted to obtain a Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) certification and she had thought she was not going to be able to achieve this goal through self-study.
"The content in the Networking Academy Program's training was systematic, comprehensive, but not at all difficult. Even for those who had not learned about networking it wasn't hard, just that the length of their studies varied," she says.
"Aside from theory discussions
during the training, there were also practical lessons, which included
learning the configuration of Cisco's low-end switches and routers;
these are things that cannot be learned from books," she says. "I still
remember the time when we attended our first practical lesson where
I saw DET and DCE wires, thick as our thumbs, entwined together, and
thought that it was particularly fresh and fascinating."
Ye Jing successfully graduated from the Cisco Networking Academy Program in a class comprised of 25 percent women and received her CCNA certification in the year 2000. The Cisco Certification she believes has increased her confidence in her ability to understand networking and to apply her skills to the field. "The Cisco Networking Academy Program brought me more exercises in practice than theories in the program, which is very helpful in my work of network designing and configuration. Since products of Cisco are so popular in the communication and network industry, getting more information about Cisco's routers and switches makes my work easier."
"The Networking Academy program provided good training and the chance to put theory into practice," she says. After graduating from the program, she had no trouble finding a job. Rather the challenge she faced was in deciding which kind of job would allow her the opportunity to continue studying IT and pursuing her master's degree. For a period of one year, she worked for the Great Wall Broadband Network (GWBN) contracting, designing and complementing GWBN networks in Western China while completing a master's degree.
After graduating with a Masters degree, researching communications networking and broadband communications technology, Ye Jing was keen to put some of this knowledge to practical use. She worked in the IT department of the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE). Her work there was challenging and her responsibilities immense as the network demanded a much higher standard of service than a traditional telecommunications company. "The network cannot be interrupted for one millisecond or it can cause a reaction from the economy," she says. Nevertheless she enjoys the thrill of working on this extremely large, highly connected network.
Ye Jing says her study with the Cisco Networking Academy Program made it possible for her to participate in the United Nations Beijing + 5 Conference held at the UN headquarters in New York on June 4th, 2000. Ye Jing looks back fondly on her experience. It was not only her first visit abroad; it was a chance for her to make a statement about the rights of women and children across the world especially concerning educational opportunities. Her advice to other women, "First of all, continue to study. Women do not want to do exercises in labs, but I think it is very important, because when you design a network, information is not enough." She believes that the biggest obstacle faced by women in IT is the lack of practical training. "There are advantages for women to engage in information technology, such as developing good communication skills and an ingenious imagination," she says.
"I went through a strict selection process and a one-hour telephone interview with Cisco before I attended the meeting as the only representative from Asia, and delivered a brief speech on the influences of networking and education on the new century," she says. "This chance is not something I would have imagined gaining when I joined the Cisco Networking Academy Program."
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