Meet Alexander Ruppel, Étude Class of 2020 graduate. This fall Alex will be attending Lakeland Technical College working toward dual majors to become a Network Administrator and Computer Support Specialist. In fact, Alex has been part of LTC the entirety of his senior year through the Start College Now program.
“At LTC I have been learning and practicing the skills that are crucial to building an IT background, with a personal focus on Cisco Routing and Switching. So far I have learned how to understand different networks, how to do some of the programming for networking devices, how to interact with servers, and basic security for many different types of devices.”
Alex began his career at Étude Middle School as a sixth grader. He chose Étude in the hopes of finding a strong community environment where he could pursue different learning styles. This sense of community and varied learning styles also led Alex to Étude High School.
“I found a great community at ÉMS, one that has followed me even to this day. I never thought that when I came to high school that I would become a musician. I learned some of the basics of guitar in eighth grade, but it wasn’t until I got to high school that I started learning how to play well, and learned more about music as a whole. Soon enough, I was joining different bands and music projects, and was able to become an amateur musician.”
Alex also spent his time at ÉHS loading up on course work to better prepare himself for his future. Oftentimes this included two content classes a year instead of the standard one.
“Étude helped me the most by allowing me to take whatever classes I felt I could complete and pushing me to excel in these classes. I found myself doubling up on classes, so I could be more prepared for my senior year, where I was also pushed to join the Dual Credit Program. A class that I really found helpful was Engineering class, where we worked with circuitry. In this class, we learned the basics of binary, which were crucial to me learning how to understand IP addressing and subnetting in my networking classes.”
Congratulations Alex and thank you for being a part of the Étude community! Go forth with an excitement for learning, a desire to explore and the knowledge that you are empowered to change the world.
“I thank Étude for the good times and the experiences that it granted me. The training provided to better my skills as a professional and prepare me for life outside of school is invaluable and will help me in every step I take in the future.”
