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JBSA News
NEWS | April 27, 2017

San Antonio students choose STEM, guided by 24th Air Force mentors

By 1st Lt Lauren Woods, 24th Air Force Public Affairs

Beaming with pride, the Alamo Heights High School competitors posed on stage behind a prop check representing the $1000 scholarships they had all just won. Fresh from the CyberPatriot all-service division competition, they had raked in a bevy of wins - fourth-place Army JROTC team nationwide, best overall in San Antonio, as well as best all-girls team in San Antonio - and with their wins, had secured scholarships and internships to pursue further cyber education. But they couldn’t have done it alone.

These students owed much of their success to the hard work of their mentors from the 92nd Cyberspace Operations Squadron, Joint Base San Antonio, Texas. Since the beginning of the 2016 school year Staff Sgt. William Jones, 92nd COS Mission Protection NCO in Charge, and a team of 13 Airmen developed and taught a cybersecurity curriculum to 25 Alamo Heights Army Junior ROTC cadets in order to prepare them for competition in the Air Force Association CyberPatriot program.

CyberPatriot, a nationwide program encouraging K-12 students to pursue careers in cybersecurity and other STEM fields, draws competitors from across the U.S. with prizes for finalists including scholarships, national recognition and internships with some of the nation’s top cybersecurity firms. Competitors are sorted into 4-person cyber teams that compete to most effectively harden cyber systems and networks against intrusion.

“When you build a CyberPatriot team you’re shaping future leaders,” said Jones. He explained that for many of the students, all of whom are cadets, a future serving in the armed forces was likely and most would pursue a degree in computer science.

The students begin with learning fundamentals and delve deeper into security and systems administration techniques as the year progresses. Jones explained the program sets students up for future success: “in our job we train local cyber defenders, and by the end of the year these high school students are on par with industry teams.” 

Jones took on the program when his flight commander, the previous organizer, departed and needed a replacement. Every Tuesday and Thursday Jones and his team of volunteers would travel to Alamo Heights High School where they would spend an hour and a half teaching the curriculum they developed and providing hands-on guidance. Mentors were chosen from those who already had expertise working with the cyber systems, although there was no shortage of those willing to volunteer.

“This is the most effective volunteering I’ve done,” said Jones. “I didn’t realize these kids were getting scholarships and internships, but I could see they were all excited and interested to learn.” The middle school team in particular showed enthusiasm, he said, considering they had to be bussed in to participate.

CyberPatriot is only one of several STEM mentorship programs in which 24th Air Force Airmen lead the way. Since 2014, 24th AF has partnered with Civil Air Patrol to host an annual Cyber Defense Training Academy, in which 50-150 CAP cadets spend a week learning about Air Force cyber operations. This intensive crash-course program is intended to give the students familiarity with a variety of cyberspace topics and their military applications. The next iteration of CDTA is scheduled for July 2017.

As for Staff Sgt. Jones? He plans to continue working with mentoring students, including finding more volunteers and developing a web application to better connect mentors with teams.