Andrew Giddings, a senior systems analyst for University Students Initiatives Technology Services at Arizona State University helps more than 2,000 people across 4 campuses do their jobs in enrollment services and student affairs. It’s an opportunity he earned largely because of the Cisco Cisco Networking Academy, a program the computer-equipment-manufacturing giant runs and funds to train high-school and college students in computer-network maintenance.

Giddings began working for Cisco 2 weeks after high-school graduation and continued there through college before taking the position with ASU about 4 years ago. He is one of more than 13,000 Arizona high-school students to learn IT and networking skills through the Cisco Networking Academy in the last decade.

Arizona boasts 53 of Cisco’s approximately 2,300 academies, which span more than 150 countries. About 60% of the academies are in high schools. 30% are in community colleges, and 10% are in universities.