The designation recognizes the quality of the college's cybersecurity program, officials said. Clark State was one of 16 schools with this designation in Ohio, and one of five community colleges.
"Receiving and maintaining this designation takes a tremendous amount of work from our cybersecurity faculty and from others on campus as this is an institutional wide recognition," said Adam Parrillo, dean, school of business and applied technologies.
"I am particularly proud of our faculty, Alisa Van Overstraeten and Matt Klint, for the time spent on the process and endeavoring to make this academic program the best it can be for students with goals of employment in the cybersecurity workforce," he added.
The designation is awarded to community colleges that have established a high-quality cybersecurity program and have mapped their courses to two of the training standards of the Committee on National Security Systems.
At Clark State, cybersecurity is taught throughout the curriculum in information technology and other disciplines such as health care and criminal justice.
Kierre Brown, assistant dean, school of business and applied technologies, said it's an honor to be recognized.
"This prestigious designation provides more distinction for the cybersecurity program at Clark State. Students will have the opportunity to be a part of a nationally recognized cybersecurity program," Brown said.
Schools are designated after meeting criteria and mapping courses to a core set of cyber defense knowledge units, and can elect to map their courses to specialized focus areas. They receive formal recognition from the U.S. government as well as opportunities for publicity for their role in securing the nation's information systems.
The designation is awarded by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and CyberWatch.
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