The $90,000 grant came through the National Security Agency’s GenCyber program, which aims to “increase student opportunities in cybersecurity college and career readiness pathways,” according to its website. It will allow about 60 high school students from Bridgeport to take part in the summer program. “SHU’s award will support PioneerGuard, an immersive cybersecurity summer program that will introduce high school students to foundational cybersecurity concepts, responsible digital practices, and education and career pathways through hands-on learning,” said Sajal Bhatia, PioneerGuard’s program director and a cybersecurity professor, in a statement. PioneerGuard will be offered to high school students through Sacred Heart’s TRIO Upward Bound program, a federally funded college preparatory program for high schoolers that has a goal of increasing the rate at which students complete secondary education and enroll in and graduate from college.The cybersecurity program will be geared toward students who have little or no previous exposure to the field. It will be offered through a six-day in-person camp, where students will complete 30 hours of instruction.In PioneerGuard, these students will get the opportunity to complete hands-on activities in Sacred Heart’s different labs, which offer equipment for artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, 3D printing, virtual reality and more. The students will work “collaboratively on challenges that culminate in a capture-the-flag competition,” according to a news release. The activities will include analyzing phishing attacks, password-cracking exercises and team-based cyber challenges. “Hands-on learning is at the heart of PioneerGuard,” Bhatia said in a statement. “Students will explore foundational concepts such as confidentiality, integrity, availability, defense in depth, adversarial thinking, cybersecurity ethics, password security, cryptography, phishing and social engineering, network security and AI in cybersecurity.”Bhatia added that PioneerGuard addresses the exposure gap high schoolers tend to have when it comes to cybersecurity.“Cybersecurity increasingly affects nearly every profession and every aspect of our digital lives, yet many high school students have limited opportunities to experience cybersecurity in a structured, hands-on environment,” he said in a statement.“PioneerGuard addresses that gap by building cybersecurity awareness early and showing students that cybersecurity can provide an exciting pathway to college and a wide range of future careers.”
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