Getting an inside look at a career that you’re interested in can be difficult, Dakota Carrier Network (DCN) offered an invaluable opportunity for two young professionals to receive a hands-on experience in the field of technology.
While attending IT classes through Bismarck State College (BSC), Jeremy Grossman and Taite Grossman had the opportunity to tour the DCN building. Realizing the interest in IT, Tim Paulson, DCN’s Ethernet/IP Supervisor extended an invitation to initiate a mentoring program.
A few months later, Jeremy and Taite expressed interest in applying their classroom studies to real work application. After spring courses ended, Jeremy and Taite provided Tim with their BSC syllabuses so he could align the mentoring program with their classroom topic.
Topics like IP sub-netting, 802.1q (VLANs), firewall, and dynamic routing protocols were able to be explained and demonstrated in a lab environment, and once the course concepts were understood, Jeremy and Taite were able to witness the deployment of the topics on a production network.
As a final mentoring project, Jeremy and Taite built a private network that could access the internet using carrier grade firewalls and appliances.
Through DCN’s IT mentorship program, Taite and Jeremy were able to see DCN’s state-of-the-art equipment in action by experiencing the hands-on building of networks with an enterprise business.
Currently, Taite is attending BSC and Jeremy is employed with MDU Resources in their network department.Pictured from left to right: Tim Paulson, Ethernet/IP Supervisor; Taite Grossman; and Jeremy Grossman.
