{"id":125346,"date":"2020-07-23T16:29:46","date_gmt":"2020-07-23T22:29:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=125346"},"modified":"2022-04-21T15:35:07","modified_gmt":"2022-04-21T21:35:07","slug":"gencyber-camps-to-open-doors-for-representation-in-cybersecurity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=125346","title":{"rendered":"UCCS GenCyber camps to open doors for representation in cybersecurity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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GenCyber camps, co-funded by the National Security Agency and National Science Foundation, are focused on exposing young women and minorities to cybersecurity concepts. Photo credit: Inland Empire Community News.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Cybersecurity is one of the fastest-growing career fields in\nthe nation, and with good reason: as the world grows increasingly reliant on\ntechnology, organizations need skilled professionals to defend their networks. More\nthan 17,000 cybersecurity positions in Colorado are vacant at any time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet despite a pressing need for professionals to fill these lucrative\npositions, by some national estimates, women make up less than 10 percent of cybersecurity\nprofessionals, and less than five percent are minorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately, UCCS is working to fix that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to a grant co-funded by the National Security Agency\nand National Science Foundation, UCCS will offer five GenCyber camps, beginning\nsummer 2021, to teach introductory cybersecurity concepts to middle school\nstudents. Their goal is to motivate underrepresented students, including women\nand minorities, to pursue a future career in cybersecurity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spearheading the program are Gretchen Bliss, UCCS\u2019 director\nfor cybersecurity programs, and Vicki Taylor, STEM program manager and middle\nschool program manager for the Pre-Collegiate Development Program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It is estimated that just 10 percent of the cybersecurity workforce consists of women, and just five percent are minorities. Photo credit: ThisIsEngineering, Unsplash.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

For Bliss and Taylor, the solution to representation in\ncybersecurity is starting early. Their goal is to build a pipeline that helps\nguide middle school and high school students to UCCS\u2019 cybersecurity programs\nand beyond, to careers in cybersecurity fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur target groups \u00ad\u2013 women, rural students and minorities\n\u2013 are so lacking in the industry right now,\u201d said Bliss. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need diversity of approach in the cybersecurity field.\nWhen you have diverse problem-solving skills, and diverse experiences and\nperspectives, you have a much more efficient and effective approach to\ncybersecurity. It helps you to be much more successful in protecting the data\nand assets in our country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Taylor, a former software engineer who has been working\nwith students in K-12 STEM education since 2009, starting early \u2013 and finding a\nmessage that resonates with young people \u00ad\u2013 is critical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMiddle school is the perfect time for young women to think\nabout what is and isn\u2019t interesting to them,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cFor middle school\ngirls, what\u2019s really important is getting that message across that they can\nmake a difference. And I think cybersecurity is an area where they really can\nmake a difference. Being a cybersecurity professional is the new superhero.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next summer\u2019s GenCyber camps will give students 30 hours of \u201cgameified\u201d instruction over four days, presented by UCCS faculty and staff members together with local educational consultants from Spark Mindset. In addition to direct training using virtual reality problem-based exercises, students will develop a career plan to chart their next steps. They will also receive access to UCCS online programs and resources to support them in pursuing cybersecurity careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Camp participants will walk away with small single-board computers called Raspberry Pis. “They’ll walk away with tools they can keep engaging with,” said Taylor. Photo credit: Harrison Broadbent, Unsplash.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

And in keeping with their efforts to expand the\ncybersecurity pipeline in Colorado, the instructional team will provide camps for\nrural and underserved communities at five different venues. Each camp will be\nhosted by academic institutions participating in the Mountain West\nCybersecurity Consortium, reaching across eight southwestern states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of the camps will be offered for free, and students will\nbe able to take home technology, like small single-board Raspbery Pi computers,\nto continue practicing their skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe hope that some students will come back to camp year\nafter year,\u201d Bliss said. \u201cIf we expose them in middle school, they\u2019re more\nlikely to continue down the pathway. This is a building block we\u2019ll use to\ncreate a pathway to the programming we have in our schools and initiatives we have\nin Colorado Springs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bliss and Taylor see plenty of opportunity to expand the program.\nTop of mind for the duo is the potential for UCCS and Pikes Peak Community\nCollege to collaborate on a GenCyber teacher camp to help middle and high\nschool STEM teachers to incorporate cybersecurity in the classroom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For now, Bliss and Taylor are excited to put together next\nsummer\u2019s camps and lay the foundation for the cybersecurity workforce of the\nfuture \u2013 located right here in Colorado Springs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe sky is the limit,\u201d Bliss said. \u201cYou never know what you\u2019re going to spark, or what you\u2019re going to inspire in the students you reach.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About Cybersecurity at UCCS<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

UCCS is a recognized cybersecurity education leader in the region, awarding hundreds of degrees each year in cybersecurity fields at bachelor\u2019s, master\u2019s and doctoral levels. UCCS cybersecurity programs train security professionals who work to ensure the nation\u2019s security, support faculty research and strategic cybersecurity partnerships with industry, government, military and academic institutions, including the U.S. Space Force and the National Cybersecurity Center. \u202fDue to generous Colorado state funding of cybersecurity education, UCCS students are eligible for significant financial aid towards security degree scholarships. Learn more about Cybersecurity Programs<\/strong><\/a> at UCCS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UCCS will offer five GenCyber camps, beginning summer 2021, to teach introductory cybersecurity concepts to middle school students. Their goal is to motivate underrepresented students, including women and minorities, to pursue a future career in cybersecurity. (More)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":125352,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,429,48],"tags":[114,339,332,186,361],"class_list":["post-125346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-distinctive-programs","category-science-and-tech","tag-college-of-engineering-and-applied-science","tag-cybersecurity","tag-more-news","tag-pre-collegiate-development-program","tag-distinctive-programs"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/GenCyber-2.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1mBpJ-wBI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=125346"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138447,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125346\/revisions\/138447"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/125352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=125346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=125346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=125346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}