At Shakopee, tech skills promise a new future

By Kevin Delaney, Cisco Networking Academy, December 4th, 2023

Cisco Networking Academy empowers incarcerated women to re-enter society successfully.

“Things happen in life, and you can’t go back,” said Amie Stier, who was recently released from the Minnesota Correctional Facility at Shakopee. “All I can do is go forward.”

Helping Stier go forward is Cisco Networking Academy. After entering prison in 2019 on a non-violent drug charge, she was able to complete three levels of Networking Academy courses. Today, she’s facing the outside world with newfound confidence and hope. For Stier and other recently incarcerated women, life after prison can seem daunting. Job searches, sobriety, finding a home, and regaining custody of children are just a few of the challenges they may face. And the social stigma of prison time can undermine it all. That’s why real-world skills are so important — especially for an in-demand field like technology.

“At first, it was like learning a whole new language, a whole new world,” Stier said of her courses. Click here to read more of this article on Cisco Networking Academy's website.