The College of Southern Maryland hosted 150 area middle school students Wednesday, December 3, 2014 for the “Cool Careers in Cybersecurity for Girls Workshop,” led by the National CyberWatch Center K-12 Division’s Educational Technology Policy, Research and Outreach program (ETPRO).
The goal of the workshop was to introduce female students to the academic and career opportunities available in the cybersecurity field. With a scenario described by ETPRO Executive Director Dr. Davina Pruitt-Mentle and with guidance through problem-solving exercises from cybersecurity professionals from organizations in the D.C. Metro Region, the students learned about the challenging investigative work that is part of this field. CSM Vice President of Academic Affairs Robert Farinelli told the middle schoolers, “All the doors are open for you as you graduate high school when you take as many math and science classes as you can. Don’t let people talk you out of taking math because it is too hard. The ‘hard’ is what is good.” He also invited the students to CSM’s annual Women + Math conference for students ages 13 and older scheduled for April 18, 2015. For information on Women + Math, visit www.csmd.edu/STEM.