by Team NexGenT | NexGenT Updates
Karishma Mendes is NexGenT’s new Student Counselor and a Licensed Professional Counselor Associate (supervised by Chari S. Westcott, LPC-S, MA, PLLC) in Houston, Texas. Karishma is thrilled to be a part of NexGenT and seeks to make a positive impact in the lives of students by educating, equipping, and empowering them for success in their academic, vocational, and personal journey. She holds a BA in Psychology and MS in Clinical Mental Health counseling from the University of St. Thomas-Houston (UST)
Karishma’s speciality is in clinical and career counseling. Previously, she served as a Career Counselor at UST’s Career Services and Testing Center and at Rice University-Center for Career Development. During her time at UST and Rice, Karishma counseled over 182 diverse students including domestic, international, veterans, and alumni. Having been a student herself, she enjoys helping students find their ambitions and passions through one-on-one mentoring, counseling, workshop facilitation, and program evaluation. Karishma defines herself as a student success and mental health and wellness advocate. She brings an international perspective, having traveled to India and Dubai. She also speaks English, Hindi, and is moderate in Spanish and Mandarin.
Karishma’s counseling mission is to collaborate with her clients and help them create a life they love that will lead to lasting recovery. When Karishma isn’t teaching coping skills, a course, or counseling, she is painting, writing music, and dancing to her favorite tunes. Please join the NexGenT Team in welcoming Karishma Mendes!
by Team NexGenT | NexGenT Updates, Success Stories
On the evening of December 15th, we gathered for our virtual graduation ceremony to celebrate the recent success of our Full Stack Network Engineer 6-19-2020 cohort. This was truly an exciting moment for everyone as the cohort members completed the Full Stack Network Engineer (FSNE) program having put in their passion and hard work over 22 weeks to achieve success. The cohort began on June 19th, 2020, and completed with 66 graduates.
Through the program, students learned exactly what it takes to be an effective and successful Network Engineer in today’s workforce. Having most students starting out with no prior experience, their knowledge was built from ground zero where they learned the fundamentals of networking and progressed all the way to planning, designing, and deploying their own multi-site, enterprise-grade networks by the end of the program. The students from this cohort are now in the job hunting phase. Some of which have already landed new IT jobs or landed promotions within their companies.
What’s the program like?
The FSNE program prepares students for the real-world by rigorously vetting their skills and knowledge over 22 weeks and across multiple checkpoints and milestones which include multiple certifications. The first certification that students must achieve is the Full Stack Network Associate (FSNA) certification from NexGenT. To achieve this students must pass a written exam and also deploy a real network on their own which supports routing, switching, wireless networking, voice over IP, and network security. After achieving the FSNA, students then work on obtaining their Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) certification from Cisco Systems. The goal is for the students to knock out this certification by the 90-day mark before moving into the advanced training aspect of the program. Upon entering advanced training, students immediately begin learning project management skills and working to design and build their first project. Their first project is a very robust 3-site network deployment with a headquarters and two remote offices. Two more projects are then deployed where a Cisco ASA with remote access SSL VPN solution is deployed, followed by a Colo Data Center deployment for redundancy and additional network services.
After planning, designing, implementing, supporting, and finally closing all three of these projects, the student must pass their final skills qualification and troubleshooting check, in order to achieve their Full Stack Network Professional (FSNP) certification from NexGenT. Throughout the program students also receive career help and have many career-related milestones to accomplish relating to their career plan, resume, and personal branding. After completing all program milestones and capstone projects, the students then move to the job hunting phase where they focus strictly on landing their new job or promotion.
There are currently three other cohorts running who will soon be graduating and celebrating similar success, and our next FSNE cohort launches in February 2021, only a few days from now! To learn more about getting on the path to become a network or systems engineer with robust training, project-based learning, career planning, and real-world skills certification with zero upfront costs, then click here.
Additionally, six special recognition awards we handed out to recognize top performers, most improved, and first to get certified.
Winners of the six Recognition Awards:
- Master of the Network: Md Rahman
- Most Improved: Marcus Snelling
- Commendation Medal: Chris Sassone
- CCNA 1st To Certify: Oluwatosin Bamidele Desalu
- FSNP Low Latency: Jason Hoang
- FSNP Ace Award: Amadou Diop, Andres Espinal, Audrey Garcia, Brandon Spain, Chen Bayba, Christopher Sassone, Donte Dillard, Jason Deoraj, Jea Sheng Chen Ruan, Jordan Derington, Jose Castillo, Jason Hoang, Liam Lyne, Md Rahman, Noah Davis, Phillip Rozul, Raghda Hussein, Ralph Vetter, Sadaris Coulter, Tekia Coryell, Victor Roberts
Join us in congratulating all of the graduates of the 6-19 cohort!
- Aleshia Wingate, FSNA-0199, FSNP-0098
- Alex Bass, FSNA-0134
- Amadou Diop, FSNA-0186, FSNP-0072
- Andres Espinal, FSNA-0180, FSNP-0067
- Audrey Garcia, FSNA-0179, FSNP-0096
- Bernard Adeniran, FSNA-0119
- Brandon Spain, FSNA-0190, FSNP-0097
- Chen Bayba, FSNA-0171, FSNP-0070
- Chinedu Okonkwo, FSNA-0224, FSNP-0114
- Christian Evboumwan, FSNP-0105
- Christopher Bell, FSNA-0105, FSNP-0087
- Christopher Bettis, FSNA-0192
- Christopher Robinson, FSNA-0185
- Christopher Sassone, FSNA-0169, FSNP-0071
- Cory Bethune, FSNA-0191
- Costes Kimes, FSNA-0160, FSNP-0113
- Curtis Thomas, FSNA-0182
- Daniel Aguirre, FSNA-0153, FSNP-0091
- Donte Dillard, FSNA-0221, FSNP-0068
- Donte Wilkins, FSNA-0097, CCNA
- Dren LaPhayne, FSNA-0159, FSNP-0099
- Edward Arroyo, FSNA-0203, FSNP-0094
- Einar Galilea, FSNA-0181, CCNA
- Felice Marin, FSNA-0177, FSNP-0073
- Giovanni Ledesma, FSNA-0227
- Jared Dickerson, FSNA-0178, FSNP-0092
- Jaron Smith, FSNA-0197, FSNP-0076
- Jason Deoraj, FSNA-0150, FSNP-0081
- Jason Hoang, FSNP-0086
- Jea Sheng Chen Ruan, FSNA-0194, FSNP-0069
- Joe Edwards, FSNA-0213, FSNP-0107
- Johnny Rosario, FSNA-0149, FSNP-0074
- Jordan Derington, FSNA-0187, FSNP-0075
- Jose Castillo, FSNA-0163, FSNP-0100
- Justin Sanin, FSNA-0161, FSNP-0090
- Kay Atre, FSNA-0216
- Kyoshi Fish, FSNA-0091, CCNA
- Liam Lyne, FSNA-0168, FSNP-0085
- Loren Dukes, FSNA-0212, FSNP-0088
- Marcus Snelling, FSNA-0196, FSNP-0111
- Md Rahman, FSNA-0147, FSNP-0077, CCNA
- Michael King, FSNA-0218
- Michael Wright, FSNA-0198, FSNP-0093
- Minh Truong, FSNA-0155, FSNP-0078, CCNA
- Monalisa Ngono, FSNA-0225
- Nichole Atkins, FSNA-0217, FSNP-0110
- Noah Davis, FSNA-0184, FSNP-0103
- Oluwatosin Bamidele Desalu, FSNA-0170, FSNP-0080, CCNA
- Phillip Rozul, FSNA-0154, FSNP-0095
- Raghda Hussein, FSNA-0166, FSNP-0082
- Rakiya Smith, FSNA-0106, CCNA
- Ralph Vetter, FSNA-0193, FSNP-0079
- Roberto Buenrostro, FSNA-0301, FSNP-0089
- Roderick Mitchell, FSNA-0201
- Ronald Boughner, FSNA-0172, FSNP-0109
- Sadaris Coulter, FSNA-0183, FSNP-0083
- Samantha Horne, FSNA-0219
- Sarah Mattson, FSNA-0107
- Sergio Maldonado, FSNA-0164, FSNP-0084
- Tekia Coryell, FSNA-0157, FSNP-0104
- Tim Byland, FSNA-0173, FSNP-0101
- Techeramie Finney, FSNA-0117, FSNP-0106
- Victor Boyd, FSNA-0214
- Victor Roberts, FSNA-0152, FSNP-0102
- Xhayni De Mur, FSNA-0174, FSNP-0112
- Zari Haraway, FSNA-0211, FSNP-0108
by Team NexGenT | NexGenT Updates
Nicole Evans is a Career Success Coach who has an astounding passion for meeting people where they are to get them to where they want to be! Having pursued a master’s degree in Educational Psychology, she is more equipped with assessing individuals’ current state to help achieve the goal at hand. Nicole is also a Certified Life Coach. She can actively listen to individuals’ cues to reshape their solutions for success, especially career success.
Nicole has previous experience as a Director of Staff and Program Development, Family Academic Support Advisor, and an Educational Manager. Nicole is adept in leadership skills, academic advising, career services, training skills, engagement skills, and professional learning/planning skills. As a well-rounded professional who has years of experience developing and supporting students and organizations’ educational needs, she strives for continued excellence and is eager to help!
Why NexGenT? Nicole believes in NexGenT’s mission and values. Nicole is fueled by helping individuals with their career goals and achieving their desired goals and outcomes.
When Nicole is not shifting gears for individuals and their career goals with intentional coaching, she’s painting, cooking, playing inside corn hole, or pinning on boards for travel, style, and DIY projects. She also loves a great book or finding the next best movie!
About NexGenT Career Service
Our NexGenT Career Service team works with you to develop your job attainment skills. We do this by first analyzing your individual strengths and weaknesses to build a custom career development plan. Your job success is so important that we dedicate a Career Success Coach to meet with you 1:1 to ensure you’re on track to reach your personal goals. Your Career Success Coach works with you to master each career milestone of a professional resume, cover letter, IT or cybersecurity interview preparation, a professional LinkedIn profile, and ultimately, a job and career success plan.
We look forward to helping you level up and achieve your career goals!
If you aren’t already a student, apply for NexGenT’s Full Stack Network Engineer program here or NexGenT’s Cyber Security Specialist program here!
by Sara Hutchison | NexGenT Updates
Have you noticed that when you create a LinkedIn Profile, your URL looks something like this:
Linkedin.com/in/nxgent -12324-sdf12 ?
This link is auto-generated for all profiles. It can be lengthy and leave a lot of room for error if manually typing in the address. You can both shorten this link and make your profile look polished by customizing this link. It’s free and simple to change. Let’s take a look at how to edit your LinkedIn URL.
To update your LinkedIn profile URL, follow these steps below:
- Go to your LinkedIn profile page. On the top right corner, you will see the option to edit your public URL.
2. Click on the small blue pencil icon to go into editing mode. You can change all of the letters and numbers after the backslash.
3. Once you have shortened and customized your profile link, you can click the blue save button. And now you’ve just learned how to edit your personal LinkedIn URL!
Some tips and ideas to consider when selecting your new LinkedIn URL:
- Unless you have a unique name, you may find that your actual first and last name is already taken. If your desired URL is not available, you will need to find a variation of your desired name that may include numbers.
- I especially love it when a candidate uses the same username as their email. For example, if your email is WillliamB14@gmail.com, consider your LinkedIn URL to be linkedin.com/in/williamB14. This creates consistency and branding for your resume header.
While we’re at it, let’s talk about your resume header for a moment. Now that you have a spiffy new LinkedIn URL, use it on your resume header like this:
First LastName
City, ST 12455 | williamb14@gmail.com | Linkedin.com/in/williamb14
The shortened LinkedIn URL not only looks better, but it makes it easier for your hiring manager to manually type in this URL in their browser in the event the resume was printed and not viewed on a screen. Keep this in mind when using any hyperlinks in your resume!
Have questions about your LinkedIn, resume header, or general application assistance? Reach out to NexGenT career services today.
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by Team NexGenT | NexGenT Updates
Dr. Christian Ryan is a Career Success Coach obsessed with student success. She joins NexGenT with more than 15 years of experience in educational programming and student advising. Her expertise lies in areas of sustainability, environmental science, public problem solving, and social justice. She holds a doctorate in educational leadership. Christian served as the Sustainability Coordinator at Western Kentucky University where she developed a nationally recognized sustainability program. More recently, she coordinated a Corporate Sustainability Roundtable of 34 Nashville businesses, working with them to develop sustainability practices and policies and coaching employee “green teams.”
Christian believes that education should be accessible to every person who seeks to learn and gain the skills and knowledge not just to live, but to thrive. Her mission is to make sure that all types of learners are empowered with the tools, resources, and support that they need to succeed. She wants to make sure that every student’s educational experience leads them to grow and flourish, personally and professionally.
Some of her favorite things include running, hiking, yoga, food, farmers, music, and dogs. She calls both North Carolina and New Orleans home because she cannot choose, and spends time in both places.
About NexGenT Career Service
Our NexGenT Career Service team works with you to develop your job attainment skills. We do this by first analyzing your individual strengths and weaknesses to build a custom career development plan. Your job success is so important that we dedicate a Career Success Coach to meet with you 1:1 to ensure you’re on track to reach your personal goals. Your Career Success Coach works with you to master each career milestone of a professional resume, cover letter, IT or cybersecurity interview preparation, a professional LinkedIn profile, and ultimately, a job and career success plan.
We look forward to helping you level up and achieve your career goals!
If you aren’t already a student, apply for NexGenT’s Full Stack Network Engineer program here or NexGenT’s Cyber Security Specialist program here!
by Team NexGenT | NexGenT Updates
Rob Coble loves creating and facilitating community and helping students manage their careers.
Rob has been working within Career Coaching since 2004. Working in higher education in the fields of video games and technology he has had the pleasure to work with thousands of students and many recruiters and hiring managers responsible for hiring them. Working as a conduit between them has given him the opportunity to make introductions that benefit both. Rob remains active in the Central Florida Tech community and continues to host presentations on what it takes to manage your career.
Prior to his work in Education, Rob spent 20 years in the Music Industry. After many years in music retail, he went on to work with the I.R.S. Record Label as a Regional Marketing Manager, Valley Media as a Senior Product Manager, and finally five years with the Universal Music Group as Regional Director for Florida and then Los Angeles. He worked closely with the many label groups they served and artists as diverse as U2, Eminem, Reba McEntire, and Andrea Bocelli amongst many others. There, he had the opportunity to lead a fantastic staff that was recognized for their incredible marketing efforts while spearheading many corporate partnerships including the Florida Marlins, Florida Panthers, Shell Oil, Walgreens, and Seagram Americas.
Rob loves what he does – connecting people. Nothing makes him happier than watching people conquer their fears and realize their dreams. He loves meeting people because meeting people presents opportunities. He strongly believes that networking is not something that should be feared. You don’t have to be an extrovert. You can stay true to who you are and still successfully network, communicate, and find opportunities with other professionals who share your same passions forging the path you choose to lead.
Rob lives by the philosophy to ‘Dream Big – Have A Plan – Work Hard – Make Friends – Bring The Passion’!
After hours you will most likely find Rob hanging with his wife Brenda doing one of the following – Listening to music (all genres, go ahead, challenge me) smoking a cigar, sitting fireside in his backyard, enjoying spending time with family, and friend. Usually, these things are accomplished simultaneously. Oh, and travel, lots of travel whenever possible!
About NexGenT Career Service
Our NexGenT Career Service team works with you to develop your job attainment skills. We do this by first analyzing your individual strengths and weaknesses to build a custom career development plan. Your job success is so important that we dedicate a Career Success Coach to meet with you 1:1 to ensure you’re on track to reach your personal goals. Your Career Success Coach works with you to master each career milestone of a professional resume, cover letter, IT or cybersecurity interview preparation, a professional LinkedIn profile, and ultimately, a job and career success plan.
We look forward to helping you level up and achieve your career goals!
If you aren’t already a student, apply for NexGenT’s Full Stack Network Engineer program here or NexGenT’s Cyber Security Specialist program here!
