This summer, staff and faculty from the Texas A&M Cybersecurity Center conducted cybersecurity camps for high school students across Texas. These camps, funded through the Cybersecurity Center’s Cyber Leader Development Program (CLDP), aimed to spark interest in cybersecurity through hands-on exercises with programming and electronics. In all, the summer camps brought a unique learning experience to around 80 local students.
From June 5th through June 16, the Cybersecurity Center, in partnership with the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets Hollingsworth Center for Ethical Leadership, conducted the Cybersecurity, Language, and Leadership Camp for students at the International Leadership of Texas (ILTexas) charter school on the campus of Texas A&M University. ILTexas has multiple campuses throughout the state, and its educational approach emphasizes language immersion, leadership development, and college readiness. The 49 students who attended the camp were able to stay in student dormitories on campus for two weeks while they learned about cybersecurity and leadership from Cybersecurity Center faculty and Corps of Cadet instructors. They also practiced Mandarin Chinese, which is considered a language of interest for national security, with teachers from ILTexas.
Cybersecurity Center Program Director for Outreach and Continuing Education John Romero, along with Dr. Christiana Chamon, an instructional assistant professor in the Texas A&M Department of Computer Science and Engineering, led the cybersecurity component of the camp. Students were introduced to cyber fundamentals through activities that taught them how to assemble and configure Raspberry Pi computers, program in Python, use the Linux operating system, and work with electronics. The camps also emphasized ethical implications and responsibilities in cybersecurity, covering topics like social engineering and file security. The camps concluded with work on capstone projects that showcased the camps’ overarching theme: the interconnectedness of the cyber and physical realms.
“The kids really enjoyed the cybersecurity,” said Angelica Rubio, Executive Assistant to the Chief of Student Leadership Development at ILTexas. “A lot of them wanted to go back to the cybersecurity part at the end of the camp! They loved the professors.”
The Hollingsworth Center for Ethical Leadership took the ILTexas students on a 5-day journey of self-awareness and discovery during their Leadership Workshop. The workshop used an Individual Leadership Development Plan to help the students develop strategies to be authentic and intentional leaders. The students reflected on their life stories and identified their values, concepts of leadership, and motivations. To honor their commitment to making a difference, they also identified specific actions they would accomplish in the future.
The Director of the Hollingsworth Center for Ethical Leadership Dr. Dave Keller stated, “We love our interactions with the ILT students each year. They are engaged, attentive, and are sincere about wanting to become the best leaders they can be. We teach them college-level leadership topics and concepts, and each year they rise to the occasion and meet every challenge we give them. Beyond our sessions with them, we also hope some of these bright students will choose to come to Texas A&M and join the Corps of Cadets. They are precisely the kind of students we are seeking to be ethical leaders in an increasingly complex world.”
From June 20th through June 23rd, the team conducted a Cyber Summer Camp for 30 students and two teachers at the Northside School of Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship (NSITE), a business and technology magnet high school that is part of the Northside Independent School District in San Antonio. The teachers from the school actively participated in the camp, which provided them with knowledge and experience that they could bring into their classrooms in the future. The camp’s emphasis on innovation and problem-solving resonated with NSITE’s specialized curriculum on technology applications, business principles, and project-based learning. NSITE Principal Brad Hebert expressed his enthusiasm and gratitude for the collaboration, which allowed students and teachers to benefit from the program.
The aim of CLDP, which is funded through the U.S. Department of Defense, is to build a pipeline of qualified students for both civilian and military cybersecurity careers in DoD organizations. Through fun, hands-on activities, the Cyber Summer Camps conducted by the Texas A&M Cybersecurity Center through CLDP were designed to inspire a new generation of students to follow an academic path that leads them to a career in cybersecurity. This is key to developing a sustainable domestic workforce in this area that will be able to tackle the cyber challenges of the future.