UC Clermont Student Makes Final Round of National Cisco NetRiders Competition

Mark Blackham, a second-year Cisco student from Union Township progressed to the final round of the Cisco Academy NetRiders North American Competition. This is the first time a UC Clermont student has made it to the final round of the NetRiders Competition.

The NetRiders Competition is an annual competition held for Cisco Academy students throughout the world. UC Clermont’s Cisco Academy participated in the North America competition, which includes all of the United States and Canada. Second-year students participated in the first test that was proctored on campus in October. This exam was an hour-long exam, and about 950 students across North America participated.

Out of those nearly 40 UC Clermont students, five students advanced to the second round - Adria Klocke, Doug Colthar, David Payton, Matthew Hickey, and Blackham. The top five grades over the 60 percent threshold advanced to the second round and included more than 300 qualifying participants. The second round was held in early November and was a two-part exam - a written test and a working knowledge test. Each test was an hour long and was proctored by an instructor. Three finalists per state advanced and only one from each school.

“I was really surprised and shocked to learn I was the finalist from UC Clermont’s Cisco Academy. There are so many bright and intelligent students in our classes,” said Blackham.

"Mark has worked exceptionally hard to improve his Cisco networking skills and is always striving to improve his repertoire of IT skills. Mark finished 65 out of 944 competitors across the United States and Canada,” said Jeremy Herzog, Cisco instructor at UC Clermont.

The final round was a virtual event hosted on Cisco Webex. All the participants were connected via web cams and phone. “The nearly 100 contestants throughout North America were connected along with the Cisco NetRiders team. It was pretty impressive to see all the contestants and within 60 minutes of completing the exams, the top 10 finishers were announced. The top four received an all-expense paid trip to Cisco headquarters in San Jose, Calif. The final round tests were very challenging! I ended up finishing 65 in the final round,” said Blackham. 

Blackham grew up in Pocatello, Idaho, and graduated from Idaho State University in 1986 with a BBA in Accounting Information Systems. He is a networking and infrastructure manager at Medisync in Norwood where he has worked for the past nine years.

“Participating in the NetRiders competition motivated me to study and gave me the confidence to take the Cisco certification exams. On Friday, Dec. 7, I passed the first Cisco certification exam. I am planning to take two more before the start of the next semester in January. I plan to complete the Cisco Certified Network Professional certification by the end of 2013,” said Blackham.

For more information about UC Clermont’s Cisco Academy, email Cindi Scibelli, Assistant Professor of Cisco/CSST at

cindi.scibelli@uc.edu

or call 513-732-5268.