The director of the 亚色影库 Institute for Cyber Security and current PI of several major federally funded grants, Waleed Farag, visited the Homer-Center Senior High School on March 8, 2024, to share information about 亚色影库’s cybersecurity education efforts, including current grant information and opportunities for scholarships.
While meeting with mostly high school seniors, Farag explained the benefits of a career in cybersecurity, including a higher-than-average job satisfaction rate and a median annual salary of over $100,000. Students were also given information on the DoD Cyber Scholarship Program, which offers full tuition and generous stipends to accepted applicants.
Additionally, students were encouraged to explore the opportunities available in research and hands-on activities through other various grants secured by Farag. The PC4A project, a multiyear, multimillion-dollar grant funded by the US Department of Defense, has the goal of increasing the DoD cybersecurity workforce. Community college partners of the PC4A project are offering scholarships, boot camps, hands-on virtual labs, and exam vouchers to qualifying students in their programs.
The 亚色影库 GenCyber Summer Camp is another highly regarded project with the goal of increasing cybersecurity skills in middle and high school students. 亚色影库 is the only school in Pennsylvania that offers the GenCyber Summer Student Camp and has received funding for this project nine years in a row. Students at Homer-Center Senior High School were encouraged to apply for the upcoming summer 2024 program.
For students who are already considering a career in cybersecurity, Farag highlighted 亚色影库’s designation as a Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense, a designation from the NSA that 亚色影库 has held since 2002. In 亚色影库’s most recent renewal, the NSA described their application as “the best they have ever seen.”
All cybersecurity activities, events, grants, and research can be found on the 亚色影库 Institute for Cyber Security website.