Cisco Academy Graduate Secures Lucrative Position with Energy Company

Lone Star College Tomball News

Published on: January 22, 2014
Life is good for Richard Horn.  The forty-something-year-old Spring resident recently gained a fulfilling position as a cyber security network engineer with Enterprise Products, a leading U.S. provider of midstream energy services, and is being compensated handsomely for his skills and expertise.  However, it was an arduous journey before the Lone Star College-Tomball Cisco Networking Academy graduate finally found the job of his dreams. 
The Cisco Academy Learning Management System is a program that is focused on providing education, training and guidance to anyone interested in building an IT career through Cisco product and service certification.  That certification validates the ability to install, configure, operate and troubleshoot medium-size route and switched computer networks as well as wireless networks, security appliances, and Voice over IP equipment, including implementation and verification of connections to remote sites in a wide area network.
In 1992, Horn graduated from Stephen F. Austin State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry.  After four years as a laboratory technician in the petroleum industry, he got a job with Lone Star College-Kingwood as a laboratory coordinator, and thats when things started to change. 
Ive always been interested in science and technology.   While employed at Lone Star College, I took some IT-related courses at night.  Our division was the recipient of a National Science Foundation grant for the construction of an interdisciplinary computer lab, and I was tasked with its design, procurement and implementation, Horn said.
The experience left Horn with a dilemma continue working in the lab or take a chance and follow his passion.
Id always been good with computers.  I saw the need for small office/home office IT technical support in the community and decided to try my luck at becoming a small-business owner.  The business was fairly successful for a number of years until the 2008-2009 economic crash, at ...

Read More