It’s Summertime and STEM Students are @Cisco

As a professional in today’s workplace, try to imagine being back in high school as a junior or senior, facing today’s array of options in science, technology, engineering and mathematics—the STEM fields of study. How would you go about finding a path in STEM that is right for you? What will be your line of study in university that will provide a fulfilling and challenging career? So many choices, so little time to decide.

Cisco’s STEM US2020 program invites students contemplating their career paths to visit our campuses for three weeks during their summer break to gain a perspective on a career in engineering, software development, product marketing, and operations. Cisco Enterprise Networking Business exposes participants to a cross-section of daily job-related experiences through a mentor shadowing program, lunchtime lectures, technology demonstrations, and fun team-building activities. Students get to choose their particular area of interest and focus on specific projects, such as encrypted communication, dissecting network topologies, analyzing network statistics and logs, and exploring privacy issues in today’s digital society. 

Cisco benefits from the annual influx of STEM students who provide a unique perspective on what the next generation of engineers and programmers are thinking about, how they are experiencing their education, and how they might fit into Cisco’s culture. After all, these students represent the next wave of talent that we all need to nurture to keep innovating in our respective industries. What better way to get to know your potential future workforce than to invite them into your organization for a mutual transfer of knowledge and culture? And for you old hands at engineering, don’t forget to keep your mind open to this generation’s points of view. You too can learn from their refreshing perspectives.

Last week marked the culmination of the summer program at Cisco with over 75 students from regional schools in California finalizing their projects and bidding farewell to their new acquaintances. We wish them well in their learning journeys and hope to see some of them return for full summer internships as they make their way through university and the many experiences that lie ahead.

#WeAreCisco