Fabian Miranda isn’t afraid to try out new jobs. Consider that in recent years he’s driven trucks, fitted shoes for women at a local department store and passed surgical equipment to doctors at a medical center.

So he wasn’t afraid to jump from biology and anatomy courses into a technology program where the training lasted just one semester.

The Network Cabling Specialist Program, launched at CSM last semester, gives students the knowledge and handson experience they need to land jobs in the fast-paced, high speed world of information technology.

Students learn to design, fabricate, install and test copper wire and fiber optic cable systems. “I enrolled because the classes were accelerated and I knew there would be jobs once I finished,” said Miranda.

During the Fall 2000 semester, Miranda took three courses — electronics, computer information science and network cabling technology. He was in class from two to five hours every weekday.

“The teachers were great. They were up to speed and they certainly knew what they we re talking about,” Miranda said.

By January he was working as a data and voice technician for an Oakland company.

The Network Cabling Specialist program won the Board of Governors and Chancellor’s Office Student Success Award, an honor given to only one program in San Mateo, Santa Clara and southern Alameda counties.

This feature first appeared in CSM Currents in Summer 2001.