Charlotte Epeti Mpacko, now 49, mother of two and living near Paris, France but originally from Cameroon, carved out a career for herself in networking, despite personal difficulties and discrimination, thanks to a love of all things Cisco.

26-year-old Stephen Elliott from Bedfordshire, UK, received outstanding guidance from his Networking Academy course that – coupled with his hard work – resulted in a highly rewarding job with Cisco.

Linda Schønningsen, from Bergen in Norway, had her son the day after sitting her certification exam. Now 23, she realizes that the Cisco CCNA course her university offered was key to obtaining her Network Consultant Engineer position.

Like many Israelis, 33-year-old Rachel Pinhas from Bee’r Sheva had difficulties finding a job. And like many graduates of the Women’s Empowerment Program (WEP), her fortunes changed, thanks to a Cisco Networking Academy

23-year-old Fabian Gampfer, from Germany, has studied networking both at university and at his local Cisco Networking Academy. He also works at Hewlett-Packard – and has even found time to win this year’s NetRiders competition!