By the year 2005, the information technology industry projects a shortage of 380,000 workers. Cisco sponsors Hudson's program by supplying Web-based curriculum, routing and switching equipment and technical support. The program includes a student-run computer service and repair business. About 60 students are in the network engineering program. Hudson also joined the StRUT alliance, a program that channels industry donated equipment to schools.
Students learn all phases of networking from wiring to router configuration.
By the end of the program, students can design, build and maintain a network the size of the school district's. These skills are in high demand, so Hudson has confidence his students may graduate with several job offers. Hudson is among the recipients of the 1999 Oregon Innovators in Education Award and was honored at the Feb. 18 Innovators in Education Conference in Corvallis. His curriculum impressed Linn-Benton Community College, so he trained LBCC instructors to offer the same program. When a student tells me about their career and how I helped, I'm rewarded.