Addressing the Need for Women and Minorities in Cybersecurity: A High School Early Admit Study

夏威夷毛伊岛大学社区学院的“解决妇女和少数民族在网络安全方面的需求：高中提前录取研究”将调查如何增加妇女和少数民族高中生在网络安全方面的人数。 该项目将为11年级和12年级的学生创建一个早期入学的课后职业途径，从而获得网络安全结业证书。 我们的目标将是激励学生从基本的计算机支持专家到信息保证高级职位的工作。 该项目将在农村地区实施，那里的高中往往缺乏提供信息、技术和计算机科学课程的机构资本。该项目将调查高中妇女和少数民族学生需要在信息安全专业取得成功。此外，该项目将确定影响高中生网络安全职业兴趣的因素。 该项目专门针对居住在夏威夷毛伊岛农村地区、无法随时获得技术的年轻妇女和少数民族。 该项目的独特之处在于，它侧重于对小企业至关重要的网络安全问题，而小企业是国民经济中经常被忽视的一部分。 该项目将基于一个经济模型，在该模型中，提前录取的课后课程为高中生提供了一个可行的选择，以表明他们的大学/职业偏好。 该项目将吸引70多名代表性不足的高中生参与网络安全的核心主题：（1）参与基于问题的学习（PLB）和基于游戏的学习环境;（2）参与动手网络安全竞赛;（3）连接到适当的大学学术和经济援助咨询;（4）与社区导师合作。该项目旨在让至少80%的目标参与者完成职业道路的所有阶段。至少30%的参与者将是妇女和夏威夷土著人和太平洋岛民。该项目的目标是开发一种可在其他农村社区推广的模式，通过提取和处理作为高中女生和少数民族学生网络安全职业/工作兴趣的重要决定因素的关键因素，扩大历来代表性不足的学生的参与。 该项目还将开发和培训教师和社区导师，作为教师行业团队的一部分，他们将能够传播网络安全技术人员教育。

The "Addressing the Need for Women and Minorities in Cybersecurity: A High School Early Admit Study" at the University of Hawaii Maui Community College will investigate ways to increase the number of women and minority high school students in cybersecurity. The project will create an early-admit afterschool career pathway for students in grades 11 and 12 that leads to a Cybersecurity Certificate of Completion. The goal will be to motivate students to pursue jobs from basic Computer Support Specialist through advanced level positions in Information Assurance. The project will be implemented in a rural setting where high schools often lack the institutional capital to offer information, technology and computer science programs. This project will investigate what high school women and minority students need to succeed in information security professions. Moreover, the project will identify factors that affect high school students' cybersecurity career interests. The project specifically targets young women and minorities, who live in rural areas in Maui County Hawaii, without ready access to technology. The project will be unique in that it focuses on cybersecurity issues that are critical for small businesses, an often-overlooked segment of the national economy. This project will be based on an economic model in which early-admit afterschool programs present a viable option for high school students to signal their college/career preferences. The project will engage more than 70 underrepresented high school students with core topics in cybersecurity: (1) participation in a combined problem-based learning (PLB) and game-based learning environment; (2) involvement in hands-on cybersecurity competitions; (3) connection to appropriate college academic and financial aid advising; (4) engagement with community mentors. The project aims to have at least 80% of the targeted participants complete all stages of the career pathway. At least 30% of the participants will be women and Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. The goal of this project is to develop a model that can be replicated in other rural communities to broaden participation for historically underrepresented students by extracting and addressing key factors as important determinants for high school women and minority students' cybersecurity career/job interest. The project will also develop and train faculty and community mentors as part of faculty-industry teams who will be in positions to disseminate cybersecurity technician education.