Cybersecurity in Augusta

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Youth cyber program wins top honors By Damon Cline A CyberPatriot team participates in one of the CyberCamps organized by the Fort Gordon Cyber District’s Alliance for Cyber Education. The Alliance has won the Air Force Association’s CyberPatriot Program Office’s national CyberPatriot Center of Excellence designation for the second year in a row. [SPECIAL/ALLIANCE FOR FORT GORDON] 22 Cybersecurity in Augusta - September 2020
etro Augusta’s youth cyber-education program has been named the nation’s CyberPatriot Center of Excellence for the second year in a row. The Fort Gordon Cyber District’s Alliance for Cyber Education program received the honor from the Air Force Association’s CyberPatriot Program Office, which promotes STEM programs nationwide to K-12 schoolchildren to strengthen their cyber skills and develop a future cybersecurity workforce. The local CyberPatriot program was created in 2016 by the Alliance for Fort Gordon, a nonprofit military liaison group that coordinates the seven-county Fort Gordon Cyber District initiative. Its CyberPatriot program has grown from six teams to its current 120. Alliance Executive Director Tom Clark said he was proud of the local student teams, school systems and corporate sponsors that participated in the program. “Back-to-back (Center of Excellence) awards is something our team and our region can all be truly proud of,” he said. CyberPatriot, the nation’s largest youth cyber-education program, is the Air Force Association’s flagship STEM initiative for strengthening cyber skills among American students. The Center of Excellence designation is awarded to communities and institutions that provide leadership and support to further the educational experiences of their students through the CyberPatriot program. The Fort Gordon Cyber District promotes the program across both sides of the Augusta-Aiken metro area. “The exceptional level of involvement across all areas of CyberPatriot made Fort Gordon stand out from other outstanding Centers of Excellence,” Clark said. The Alliance for Fort Gordon was originally founded in 2003 to help keep Fort Gordon off the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure list. Since the growth of the installation’s electronic warfare and military intelligence missions, the organization has evolved into a workforce- and community-development organization focused on developing a cyber economy in Richmond, Columbia, McDuffie and Burke counties on the Georgia side of the market and Aiken and Edgefield counties on the South Carolina side. North Augusta High School student Caitlynn Sykes, 14 (from right) cyber team coach Ken Beck and student Alex Flinn, 18, participate in the 2019 CyberPatriot competition last January. [FILE/THE AU- GUSTA CHRONICLE] During the past year, the organization’s Alliance for Cyber Education team conducted free CyberPatriot training for more than 70 regional teachers at the Georgia Cyber Center. It also conducted teacher- and mentor-training sessions prior to its two AFA CyberCamps. Students from 40 area public and private schools participated, with more than 60% of campers coming from middle schools. Participation among girls this year reached 24%. Clark said the Alliance’s most innovative achievement for the year was the filming and animation of both books in the CyberPatriot Literature Series. The Alliance completely funded both book readings, which are available on YouTube. ■ Back-to-back awards is something our team and our region can all be truly proud of. Tom Clark Cybersecurity in Augusta - September 2020 23
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Cybersecurity in Augusta

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