Two clinics will launch this week at Basha High School and Arizona College Prep High School, both within Chandler Unified School District (CUSD), according to Matthew Nagamine, membership director of the Consortium of Cybersecurity Clinics at the University of California, Berkeley Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity. The organization's website says it has grown to include cybersecurity clinics at 40 colleges around the world, all of which use a similar approach to give students real-world experience as they learn to help their own schools assess cyber risk and eventually fill gaps in the nation's cyber workforce.
Nagamine said the idea for the high school clinics came from the Arizona Cybersecurity Clinic at the University of Arizona, a consortium member that already had a partnership with CUSD. As part of a grant from Google to establish a cybersecurity clinic in June 2024, the university had received free access to the Google Cybersecurity Professional Certificate program, which it extended to students in Basha High's cybersecurity program and Arizona College Prep's computer science program.
This fall, about 100 out of 284 students enrolled in those programs signed up for the Google training, according to Janet Hartkopf, coordinator of emerging technologies for CUSD. Around the same time, she said Arizona Cybersecurity Clinic Director Paul Wagner brought up the possibility of rolling out cyber clinics in the two schools as a next step for students who complete the certificate.
“It’s really next to impossible to get cybersecurity internships for high school students, so when he proposed this idea, I just lit up,” Hartkopf said. “This is our chance to give them that experiential learning that they wouldn’t otherwise get.”
So far, she said 59 students have completed the Google certificate program, and planning is underway to determine how many of them will participate in the upcoming clinics, which will include five training modules focused on risk assessment, written by Wagner. During the clinics, students will complete those modules, work with district IT staff to research and analyze cybersecurity measures, present their findings to school leaders, and promote the clinic’s free services in the community, Hartkopf said.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony March 25 at Arizona College Prep High School will serve as the official launch of the high school cybersecurity clinics. During the event, Wagner said he and the director of the Arizona Department of Homeland Security will present students with Google certificates on stage.
“It’s going to be kind of like a graduation,” he said. “We’re going to have government officials, city officials, industry and all these groups come in to see what this is and show them it’s something these kids are really motivated to do, so please give them that opportunity.”
Moving forward, Wagner said he hopes to bring the cybersecurity clinic concept to other high schools, and that the Arizona Cybersecurity Clinic is already in talks with two other school districts.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if they become the first of many cybersecurity clinics that start working with local high schools,” Nagamine said. “It’s just another way that we can scale this model to fill that cyber talent pipeline need and reach more communities.”
