- Corrinne Sande
- Director, Computer Sciences and Information Systems, Director/PI, NCyTE Center, CAE National Resource Center
- Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
- NCyTE
- Suzie Dale Hong
- Project Coordinator - JROTC Cyber Academies 2022
- Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
- NCyTE
- Toyo Garber
- Marketing & Communications Manager
- Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
- NCyTE
- Michael Singletary
- http://linkedin.com/in/mrsingletary
- Associate Director
- Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
- NCyTE
JROTC Cyber Academy Pilot Program
NSF Awards: 1842096
2022 (see original presentation & discussion)
Grades 9-12
The Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) Cyber Academies being offered in summer 2022 will be the third summer of a pilot program. Coordinated by National Cybersecurity Training and Education Center (NCyTE) at Whatcom Community College, the program is modeled after the highly successful Air Force Flight Academy and aims to fill a growing need for cybersecurity professionals by teaching high school cadets about cybersecurity and cybersecurity careers. This summer there will be ten academies hosted at universities across the United States. In this presentation, we will discuss what we learned in the first two years and how we have improved the academies for the summer of 2022.
The program goals are as follows:
1. Refine a scalable Cyber Academy model featuring standardized online course content, with supplemental instruction, mentors, guest industry speakers, and other customized opportunities provided by the five host universities;
2. Provide important linkages for cadets between computer science and cybersecurity and related careers in education, industry, and government;
3. Provide the opportunity for 200 JROTC cadets (20 at each Cyber Academy) to earn three college credits for Introduction to Cyber Security or equivalent (45 hours) upon successful completion;
4. Provide cadets with a CompTIA IT Fundamentals workshop to prepare them for the associated exam; and
5. Provide the opportunity for 200 JROTC cadets to earn an industry certification in CompTIA IT Fundamentals.
Related Content for Expanding Cybersecurity Education through JROTC Academies
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2021The JROTC-CS Impact Study
Monica McGill
-
2020AFJROTC Cyber Academy: Growing the cybersecurity workforce
Sarah Lee
-
2021Increasing Opportunities for Underrepresented Minorities
Diego Tibaquira
-
2019Cybersecurity for Middle School Teachers and Students
Laurin Buchanan
-
2021The New AP CSP Cyber Course
Corrinne Sande
-
2020CyberMiSTS – Cybersecurity Curriculum for Middle School
Laurin Buchanan
-
2021Incorporating Social Engineering in Cybersecurity Education
Aunshul Rege
-
2019Teaching Cybersecurity with Networked Robots
Akos Ledeczi
Toyo Garber
Marketing & Communications Manager
Hello! Thank you for visiting NCyTE at the 2022 STEM for All Video Showcase. We are excited to present a short video on JROTC Cyber Academies - a pilot program designed to teach high-school JROTC cadets about cybersecurity and introduce them to careers in cyber. NCyTE team members will be monitoring this discussion for the duration of the event. We look forward to hearing from and engaging with you, so please share your thoughts with us here!
Michael Singletary
Associate Director
Welcome to NCyTE's video on JROTC cyber academies! NCyTE - National Cybersecurity Training and Education Center - would like your input on the JROTC academy. In the third year of the pilot, the academy offers cadets the opportunity to earn college credit, introduces them to cybersecurity careers, and provides a foundation for entering the cybersecurity field. We look forward to hearing your ideas and suggestions.
Suzie Dale Hong
Project Coordinator - JROTC Cyber Academies 2022
Thank you for visiting NCyTE at the STEM for All Video Showcase! We look forward to your feedback and are happy to answer any questions you might have.
patrick honner
Teacher
It's impressive how quickly you've been able to scale this program up in size. Can you provide some details as to how you were able to quickly turn your initial in-person summer program into a virtual program serving 10X as many students? Was the curriculum already designed to be completed remotely, or did you have to adapt it? And what adjustments have you made to work effectively at these new scales?
Michael Singletary
Associate Director
The curriculum was adapted from a cybersecurity class taught at Mississippi State University and deployed on Canvas. Instruction is centralized. Instructors are current cybersecurity faculty from across the US. They participate in instructor training on the contents of the course prior to teaching the course. There are also five mentors for each academy, which has helped cadets stay on track with the pace of the course.
Scaling up has been a challenge but offset by keeping the core group of universities and instructors. This summer, six of the universities had participated previously and many of the same instructors are returning from last year.
Adjustments have been mostly in the addition of new personnel to manage the added complexities of hosting ten academies, instructors, and and host universities. Onboarding them was a critical step.
patrick honner
Alexander Rudolph
Professor
Very nice video and interesting project. I like the description of the scalability of the model and the mention of the impact of some of the cadets attending college to pursue a career in cybersecurity. That result speaks to the success of the project. I would be interested to learn more about the content of the academies and to hear directly from the cadets how the program has impacted them. Overall, very nice job!
Michael Singletary
Associate Director
Thanks! Last year we held a virtual graduation to honor the cadets who successfully completed the academy, which was very high. Because the academies are small, the cadets were able to share something about themselves and how the academy made an impact on on their future choices in academics and careers.
Rebecca Vieyra
Associate Director of Global Initiatives
Dear team,
This sound a like a great program --> what I think most intrigues me is that it is held on / in partnership with colleges and universities, and makes the post-high school education experience much more real for those who might be uncertain about furthering their education (if this is indeed a factor).
With this in mind, I'm curious about a few things:
Finally, you mention this is a pilot program, but that you hope to continue to expand. I'm curious to know if you already have support! I figure, though, this is at least 3 years away...as your programs last at least 3 years, correct? I wonder, too, what will happen at the first sites who are now "2 years ahead" so to speak. Will you start the cycle again?
Thanks!
Michael Singletary
Associate Director
Hello Rebecca,
Cadets are required to have participated in Cyber Patriot activities or have completed an AP computer science principles or have completed a similar class. One of the academies this summer is designed for cadets without previous experience in computer science. Cadets in this summer's academy were recruited by the Air Force JROTC and Marine Corps JROTC programs.
The program evaluator has pre, mid, and post surveys to gather cadet demographics and learn how their perceptions change over the course of the academy. In the first two years, there was a diverse group of students and the completion rate was very high, which was really encouraging.
There is a lot of interest in the program and we hope it continues. The universities who have volunteered to host academies have been great to work with and we would continue to invite them to participate.
Rebecca Vieyra
Associate Director of Global Initiatives
Thanks! This sounds really promising, and I hope you will be able to do long-term tracking as well to see where folks end up (or at least what they enroll in in college).
Michael Singletary
Further posting is closed as the event has ended.