CATC Highlight - Tackling Challenges One Step at a Time

At the CATC in Budapest, which is hosted by the Budapest Polytechnic, Mr. Gyula Fehér understands the need to tackle challenges facing students and the Academy Community one step at a time. Because his CATC is integrated into the curriculum of the Faculty of Informatics, Gyula cultivates working relationships with the institution to offer the Networking courses to a wide variety of students. The CATC receives support not only from their host institution but also through their Regional and Local Academies. To accommodate the needs of their students Gyula relies on the talent of a team of people. Their model allows for innovative classes to support underserved students through well structured sustainable programs.

In addition to the personal support and problem solving expertise that Gyula offers his Academy community, the CATC also offers classes to imprisoned youth, visually impaired students, and students with physical handicaps. Alongside Gyula's efforts the National Federation of the Disabled has supported the Networking Academy training under the leadership of Dr. Mihály Derera. By partnering with these national organizations the support and opportunities afforded to the visually and physically impaired students are well rounded and holistic. The National Association of the Blind has also come to the partnership and offered significant support to the students through the work of Mihály Szuhay. The implementation of these out-of-the-box programs took time to develop, but through Gyula's guidance they have remained successful and sustainable.

When Gyula realized the need for more opportunity and vocational training for the underserved populations in his community, he thought the Networking Academy could be a perfect fit for those persons who perhaps had limited mobility, vision challenges, or for youth missing out on traditional education due to imprisonment. Working with the Area Academy Manager, Gabriella Beni, he began to make contacts with his community as well as within the Networking Academy to understand the resources available that would meet these needs. Before long Gyula designed a train-the-trainer course for blind instructors and courses that would assist instructors in becoming more conscious of the specific needs of their students. Positive pedagogy for one-on-one training as well as recent experiences with Packet Tracer and NETLAB as supplementary tools have been a great help in the classroom.

Since 2005 the CATC has welcomed in four groups of physically disabled students to the Networking Academy. One of the groups has since graduated and Gyula sees the successful completion of those students as motivation to continue and expand the program. Currently, the CATC has two blind instructors on staff who have been and will continue to offer the CCNA 1 and 2 courses to students as they continue their training in additional curricula.

As each member of the CATC continues to grow in his or her learning, the knowledge gained is passed onto the students. This cycle of learning and excitement gives rise to further innovations that serve the underserved in local communities, one step at a time.

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