About us
I created WSTFI because I was a college professor teaching Windows Server Training for over 20 years. In the 1st 15 years, I loved teaching; every day I walked into the Classroom, I learned something new. While I was a full-time instructor, I felt it was important not to lose touch with the real world. While I taught, I provided IT consulting services as a second job. I have always maintained three to four clients. Consulting allowed me to bring real-world experience into the Classroom.
In year 12, at the college, with the help of my Supervisor and Support Staff, we virtualized (VMware) the Windows Server Training Courses. To the best of my knowledge, this was the first time Windows Server Training had been virtualized in the United States. Learning took off exponentially for both the Students and Instructors. During this time frame, I met Travis Kranker; He turned out to be one of my best students. Travis passed my Windows Active Directory, Infrastructure, Exchange, and Security Courses with A’s. Travis graduated, and I helped him get a job as an IT Consultant.
Three years after virtualization was implemented, the dark side of education began to creep in. Not-for-profit education (Colleges and Universities) started chasing the almighty dollar. To keep the money flowing at all costs and to compete with for-profit colleges, Course Materials were dumbed down to pass as many students as possible. In addition, students who couldn’t learn the dumbed-down material were passed. Life changed; instead of being challenged and challenging students to be elite, teaching became a sea of paperwork and red tape.
After dealing with the dark side of education, I left the college to start WSTFI. I asked Travis, in his spare time, as he was still consulting, to help me set up the WSTFI VMware Training Environment and to review, test, and critique the labs. Travis challenged me to bring real-world (Critical thinking and problem-solving) IT consulting into the WSTFI environment.
Today, we both still serve as IT Consultants and Windows Server Trainers. Our ongoing field experience as IT consultants keeps us out of the Ivory Tower of education and allows us to remain current on trends in business and technology. WSTFI is looking for 25 students a year who want to learn, grow, and be the best. Our objective is to provide each student with the proper business and technical tools that lead to professional and financial success in the IT field. Limiting WSTFI to 25 students enables us to provide personalized guidance and support throughout the course.
Robert Carney and Travis Kranker