She encouraged them to apply for a Cyber Service Academy scholarship. For every year of the scholarship, the student must work for the Department of Defense for a year after graduation.
The goal is to draw more skilled workers into the department. There are nearly 30,000 vacant cyber positions in the Department of Defense, she said.
Students are eligible in their junior and senior years. They must be United States citizens and must be able to pass the background check for a security clearance.
The scholarship covers all tuition and fees, all books, a laptop and also includes $27,000 as a stipend for room and board.
Students who are accepted into the program will also get access to internships during their school breaks.
One of them is the highly competitive Test & Evaluation Pathfinders program, a six-week paid summer internship that trains students for their potential careers. Activities include a Certified Ethical Hacker bootcamp-style program, Security+ training, and Hack-the-Box, a popular hands-on event that teaches security tools.
Students also get to tour Department of Defense and federal agencies near the internship site. Lodging for the summer and travel is also covered.
The University at Albany is one of 24 colleges in New York that qualify for the scholarship because of their designations as National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity.
Students pursuing associate degrees, as well as master's and doctoral degrees, are also eligible. But their college must be a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity.
©2024 the Times Union (Albany, N.Y.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
