Spartanburg Community College is one of the distinguished organizations across the United States selected to participate in the 2017 season of the Air Force Association’s (AFA) CyberCamp Program this summer.
As an AFA CyberCamp host, Spartanburg Community College will receive software and a hands-on curriculum kit designed to teach students and coaches cyber safety, cyber ethics, and critical network security skills and tools. Each AFA CyberCamp will culminate in an exciting team-based competition that puts the campers in the role of IT administrators tasked with finding and addressing cybersecurity vulnerabilities in simulated network environments. The local AFA CyberCamp competitions will closely mimic AFA’s annual CyberPatriot National Youth Cyber Defense Competition, which will enter its 10th season in October.
In addition to the hands-on training, students and coaches will receive a tour of the Integral Solutions Data Center to gain first hand insight into our critical technology infrastructure. Attendees will also benefit from inspiring talks by a Navy Admiral, a US Attorney, and the head of Internet security for a Fortune 500 company.
More than 30 students and six coaches have signed up for Spartanburg Community College’s AFA CyberCamp, which will be held through June 23rd and taught by veteran CyberPatriot volunteer mentors, coaches and college faculty. The camp will be held at SCC’s central campus in Spartanburg.
“It’s exciting to see our school districts and the business community collaborate to help advance technology education,” says Marcia Schenck, SCC’s department chair of Computer and Engineering Technologies. “We are excited about hosting this camp to promote cybersecurity and STEM education in Spartanburg for the high-demand, high-wage IT/cybersecurity careers.”
In addition to hosting one of the first AFA CyberCamps, SCC will support local middle and high school teams in the CyberPatriot National Youth Cyber Defense Competition for this fall.
The CyberPatriot National Youth Cyber Education Program was created by the Air Force Association in 2009 to attract students to cybersecurity and other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines critical to our nation’s future. In addition to the annual National Youth Cyber Defense Competition and the new AFA CyberCamp program, CyberPatriot has launched an Elementary School Cyber Education Initiative designed to introduce young students to online safety. To learn more about CyberPatriot, visit http://www.uscyberpatriot.org.