Career Connected Cybersecurity Education

A series of major digital security breaches over the past year has served as a wake-up call to Corporate America about the need to invest in cybersecurity. The need for cybersecurity professionals has been growing rapidly, faster than companies can hire, and that demand is expected to continue. The goal of this project is to increase the number of students who are qualified to work in the cybersecurity field. This project will provide crucial start-up support for a new cybersecurity concentration, which will enroll its first student cohort in the fall of 2024. The project will provide students in the program with access to a state-of-the-art cyber range, reduce cost barriers to obtaining industry-recognized credentials before graduation, provide industry mentorship and internships to students, and deepen and develop the college’s relationships with cybersecurity employers for ongoing curriculum review and student employment opportunities. The project’s focus on increasing the number of workers in the high-demand cybersecurity field who come from low-income and underrepresented minority backgrounds will benefit employers by producing well-trained cybersecurity workers. The project will lead to economic advancement for all students enrolled in the program by training them for positions in the cybersecurity field and connecting them with the resources needed to gain employment in the field. Project evaluation will include formative and summative inquiries that will provide feedback to inform continuous improvement. This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the Nation's economy. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.