Santa Fe College increasing IT programs

Kamal Dair was looking to change careers after running a number of businesses.

For a while, Dair owned a Maaco shop in Atlanta. Then a liquor store in Chiefland.

“I got tired of the customer always being right,” Dair said.

Dair is one more than 1,000 students enrolled in Information Technology programs at Santa Fe College. The program houses six associate degrees and two bachelor’s degrees. This year, the school is introducing networking security degrees in health care security, security infrastructure and risk management.

Dair is pursuing a four-year, networking security degree.

“I’ve always been interested in IT and then I wasn’t sure which route I wanted to do,” Dair said. “And then I started doing some research. With the security part, it’s forever changing.”

SF, too, is changing its courses to meet the demands of an evolving high-tech marketplace. Courses currently offer hands-on experience in writing mobile applications, business software, installing and maintaining computer operating systems and programming. According to SF IT advising specialist Omar Jennings, about 900 students are enrolled in associate degree courses and another 180 are enrolled in bachelor’s programs.

SF IT education director Jorge Ibanez said the school works closely with its advisory committee, which includes local businesses GRU and Infotech, along with the University of Florida and Bradford Country.

“They tell us where the market is going,” Ibanez said.

Network security has become an increasingly important field as information systems become more complex and vital to business performance. Mari Jayne Frederick, an assistant professor at SF in networking services technology , said the addition of a bachelor’s concentration in network security has been well-received.

“They learn the gamut,” Frederick said. “They learn about risk management. They learn incident response. They learn about infrastructure, how to take care off network security, and infrastructure, they learn it from the server admin side to manage that, so they get a nice little chunk of everything.”

Frederick said in turn that helps SF graduates once they hit the workforce.

“GRU, Infotech UF, Bradford County, they hire our students,” Frederick said. “Our students now, since I’ve been here, they get hired within the community. They want them.”

Ibanez said the program has grown rapidly enough to add a seventh full-time faculty member this fall. A handful of adjuncts also help with courses each semester. Additional resources have been provided for updated computers and laptops and discounts for students for IT certifications.

“It’s an expensive program to run and we have full support of the administration,” Ibanez said.

SF instructor Patti Keefe West said the students she encounters are enthusiastic about pursuing education in IT fields.

“They are very optimistic about their chances to get really good jobs, when they leave the programs,” West said. “You don’t think about technology students as working in groups and being team focused individuals, but as you can see here, we have students helping other students, we have students working in teams to get functions done.”

One of those students, Vincent Puzio of Gainesville, is balancing school with working full time at North Florida Regional Medical Center. Puzio is in line to earn his associate degree in the summer of 2019 and then will pursue his Bachelor’s in server administration.

“It’s valuable to continue my education and have that option to do the bachelor’s program, on top of the AS degree, and I like how they mend together seamlessly and they work on top of each other,” Puzio said.

Another SF student, Pablo Driaza, is pursuing a degree in programming after working 11 years in the oil Industry. Driaza would like to create apps for the oil industry once he completes his programming degree, while as a side hobby, create a mobile video game. Driaza said his 12-year-old son, Coey, will provide the inspiration for the mobile game.

“He’s into scary stuff,” Driaza said. “He has a lot of ideas.”