So far, Cisco has hired only one of the academy students: part-time maintenance technician Felicia Voss, 18, who graduated last spring from San Francisco's Thurgood Marshall Academic High School.
"Many people who live in Portland or in Oregon are very independent-minded folks with a high sense of ethics, " says Linda Marshall, president of the Multnomah Club.
Manuel said his educational journey includes nearly 200 credits from five different schools, including a one-year stint straight out of high school playing basketball at Missouri Valley College in Marshall, Mo.