This post was written by Hilal Chouman, social media strategist for Cisco Networking Academy

Since late 2009, Cisco Networking Academy (NetAcad), one of Cisco’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs, has been present on various social media networks. The earliest presence was on the rising social network of that time: Facebook.

In late 2010, NetAcad’s Facebook page hit its first 100,000 likes. After this milestone, the Facebook page continued its growth, following the growth of the number of students in the NetAcad program.

Today, NetAcad’s Facebook page hit a half million likes (fans).

It is amazing how a social presence can accelerate in content and size, as soon as it grasps the right connection with the audience.

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Tags: Cisco CSR, Cisco Education, cisco networking academy, corporate social responsibility, education, facebook, netacad, networking academy, stem, Students

“We believe economic progress without social development is not sustainable, while social development without economic progress is not feasible.” – Klaus Schwab, Founder and Chairman of the World Economic Forum

Historically individuals and institutions have often been limited to the results of their individual efforts to make an impact. With the advent of the Internet and widespread broadband connection, however, it is now possible to efficiently join with others to act collectively -- pooling global resources and talents to solve problems too big to solve alone. This is the power of collective knowledge, creativity, and commitment in a connected age. This is what Cisco believes as we consider, plan, and execute our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities.

One way in which Cisco works collaboratively to make a global impact is by participating in events like this week’s World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. Cisco is one of the strategic partners of the event and our Chairman and CEO, John Chambers, will be speaking as part of a panel addressing Leading through Adversity on Wednesday, January 23 from  9 to 10 a.m. (CET) (midnight to 1 a.m. PST/3 to 4 a.m. EST).

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Tags: cisco networking academy, collaboration, Connecting Sichuan, CSR, WEF, World Economic Forum

By Howard Baldwin, Contributing Columnist

The stories on the Connected Life Exchange frequently focus on the importance of bringing broadband access to the Internet where it’s needed most — underdeveloped countries, rural communities and under-served areas. While broadband in and of itself cannot boost an economy, it’s a fundamental element in improving both education in the public sector and opportunity in the private sector.

But there’s one demographic segment of the population in the U.S., the UK, and undoubtedly in many other countries, that doesn’t have Internet access, and is unlikely to have it soon: prisoners.

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Tags: cisco networking academy, education, entrepreneurs, internet, jobs, training, VC

I had the privilege to shadow Kathy Mulvany from Cisco Corporate Affairs through the Connected Women Executive Shadow Program and wanted to share what a fantastic experience that was.  I shadowed her marketing strategy sessions as well as her next fiscal year planning meetings.  During our time together, I was most intrigued by the stories she shared with me from her recent trip to Africa, where she met a number of individuals who have been impacted by our social investment programs, including students from the Cisco Networking Academy.  Read More »

Tags: Cisco CSR, Cisco Education, cisco networking academy, global innovation in education, transforming education

Guest post from Frantisek Jakab

Frantisek Jakab is the Program Manager of Cisco Networking Academy in Slovakia

Russia’s concerted efforts to grow indigenous talent received significant boost recently. Cisco, the global leader in networking, and Sistema JSFC, Russia’s largest public investment company, have announced collaboration to enhance the quality of ICT education in Russia.

Why is it important? Russia wants to foster innovation locally via projects like Skolkovo that aim to create an ecosystem for innovation. To run that ecosystem, Russia will need local talent: world class technologists and entrepreneurs. The “Lift to the Future” project, launched by Sistema late last year, intends to be a vehicle to groom such talent from schools and universities by offering tutoring on Russia’s first youth tutorage network.

At ‘Social Lifts for Talented Youth -- Best Russian Experience’, a pioneering conference held by Sistema in cooperation with Moscow State Lomonosov University and Vedomosti daily newspaper, Cisco and Sistema have signed an MoU. According to it, Cisco will donate network equipment and provide access to its education programs.  In addition, the company will carry out skills-upgrade courses for teachers of the educational establishments involved in the project.  From its own side, Sistema will help Cisco to expand the Cisco Networking Academy™ program in Russia. Moreover, both companies intend to collaborate in launching student competitions, forums and summer schools to support talented Russian youth.

Elena Shmeleva, vice president of Sistema Charity Foundation, gave Cisco credit for being the first company to support the “Lift to the Future” project, stressing that “Education content provided by Cisco, as well as its unique training methodology will become a basis for training skilled ICT professionals and supporting Russian IT education within this project.”

For more details, please visit

http://newsroom.cisco.com/press-release-content?type=webcontent&articleId=928928

Tags: Cisco, cisco networking academy, education, Russia, Sistema, skolkovo