High School Student Stays Connected to Campus During Cancer Treatment

When Callie was ten years old, she was diagnosed with leukemia. Then, after two years of chemotherapy and three years of remission, Callie relapsed when she was fifteen.

To help Callie beat cancer, a bone marrow transplant was needed. However, due to the risk of exposure to germs post-transplant, Callie needed to be kept in isolation for 100 days.

This isolation would cause Callie to miss her sophomore year of high school. Of course, she was devastated.

As Callie began to beat her illness, her parents started looking into technologies that would enable her to continue her education from home. Cisco helped Callie do just that.

When our team first heard about Callie, our initial response was that we absolutely needed to help.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1uXVLFbbTE

With the support of Callie, her family, and her school, our team was able to install TelePresence endpoints in Callie’s classrooms to enable remote learning without disrupting peers in the classroom.

To ensure that Callie wasn’t just connected, but was actually able to benefit from the virtual learning experience, we worked closely with her teachers to educate them about the technology and best practices for digital learning.

The impact was incredible.

A turning point for me was when I came into a classroom and saw that Callie’s peers had decorated the endpoint for her birthday. Seeing their willingness to not only accept the technology but also to drive it to new heights was extremely emotional and powerful for me.

Allowing Callie to continue attending classes while battling this terrible illness has been by far the most rewarding thing I’ve done in my professional career. Knowing that Callie has made the Honor Roll in her last two semesters, and that this technology has enabled her to continue living and learning is truly amazing.

Callie’s story is just the beginning. Our technologies have the ability to change lives, and I know that as a company, Cisco will continue to work to get these technologies into the hands of students in need, just like Callie. Imagine the possibilities…