San Marin offers several Career Technical Education (CTE) pathways to students.
The STEM Engineering and Biotech pathways are very popular CTEs, with 52% of students enrolled in the programs, while Computer Information System Company (CISCO)—a three-year course covering security, networking, and other aspects of the internet—remains less well known.
“There are 27 students enrolled [in the pathway],” physical education, Weight Training, and CISCO teacher Gregory Irish said. “There have been more [students] over the years, but after the freshmen stopped touring [the class], we lost the influx of people we used to have.”
Irish started the CISCO program in 2014, after working at the Novato Unified School District’s office for six years.
“The district office begged me to come down here to start and teach it,” Irish said. “It is one of the longest running CTE courses here at the school. It is also the only academy between the Golden Gate Bridge and the Oregon border.”
CISCO is a program that focuses on fostering the interest of students who are inquisitive about advanced cybersecurity, working with computers, and networking.
The main point of the academy is to teach students, such as sophomore Scottie Barksdale, who are looking to learn about the ins and outs of a computer.
“I have learned about the physical components on the inside of the computer as well as the software portion,” Barksdale said. “This has provided me with the ability to fix technical problems and reprogram computers through binary code, IP addresses, and much more.”
In the first year of the course, students take a class called CISCO IT Essentials, which is offered to all grades.
The class focuses on the fundamentals of computer hardware, software, and advanced concepts including security, networking, and the responsibilities of an IT professional, according to the San Marin course catalog.
“[Students] can also take AP Computer Science [as an alternative],” Irish said. “Intro to Networking is what you take your second year. You learn about the basic creation of a small router.”
In a student’s third and final year, they take an Advanced Cyber Security class.
“You learn how to defend a network against cyber troops; anything from very simple to very complex service attacks is covered,” Irish said. “You learn the innards of how to become a person who could go out into the working world and be a cybersecurity professional.”
The class follows very closely with College of Marin’s cyber security curriculum, and students receive college credit for the courses completed in high school, which has appealed to students wanting to take the course.
“I wanted to enroll in this course since I am interested in computer science and also needed an elective last year,” Barksdale said. “I found out it counted as college credit so I enrolled. I soon fell in love with the work we were doing and decided to pursue this class and type of work further by doing all three years of the course.”
Barksdale enjoys many aspects of the class and feel that it covers useful techniques that are practical to understand.
“My favorite part of the classes is learning about the parts behind everyday computer programs and learning the skills to problems that usually require a technician,” Barksdale said. “It is definitely a class others should consider taking since it has really important skills most people should know.”
