Nearly 200 students convened at Northwest Vista College to take part in a CyberPatriot IX San Antonio Center of Excellence Practice Competition.
The purpose of the event was to help teams master the security skills necessary to protect Windows and Linux systems in a Cisco network environment. About 16 different schools were represented that ranged from middle and high schools and student military-affiliated groups.
Pat Fontenot, dean of NVC Workforce Education & Training, said his area hosted the event in an effort to become a Center of Excellence in CyberSecurity. NVC faculty Bobby Yeater and John Grillo set up classrooms and were actual hosts for the teams.
For the second year in a row, the San Antonio chapter of CyberPatriot has had more teams registered for its events than any other city in the country, including Los Angeles.
The Air Force Association created CyberPatriot with a goal of attracting students to cybersecurity and other STEM fields. Not only has the program been dramatically successful in achieving its mission, but it is doing so at rates never expected.
After participating in the CyberPatriot program, the large majority of surveyed students were more confident in their knowledge of cybersecurity principles and more inclined to pursue STEM and cybersecurity careers. For instance 92.2 percent of the survey respondents indicated that their participation in CyberPatriot somewhat (50.1 percent) or significantly (42.1 percent) impacted their career and educational goals in STEM-related fields.