Collaborative Research: Community College Cyber Pilot Program (C3P)

这个由Whatcom社区学院（WCC）与加州州立大学圣贝纳迪诺分校（CSUSB）合作的项目将运行一个类似学徒的、基于群体的项目，被称为社区学院网络试点（C3P）学者项目。其目的是根据《2018年国防授权法案》，将高素质的网络安全专业人员安置在政府职位上。该项目将探索非传统学生和退伍军人进入网络安全领域的途径，并成功完成网络安全项目，并在该领域获得有酬就业。在这种情况下，“非传统学生”指的是那些没有先前的技术学位，但拥有学士学位的人。该项目的长期目标是建立社区大学独立运行成功的SFS项目所需的机构能力，以及增加网络安全项目学生人数的多样性和联邦政府雇佣的网络安全专业人员的数量。WCC和CSUSB都被指定为学术卓越中心（CAE）网络防御；此外，WCC还运营着区域网络安全教育联盟CyberWatch West，而CSUB目前有一个活跃的CyberCorps：服务奖学金（SFS）项目。拟议的C3P学者计划将在包括WCC在内的六所试点学院开展，总共有30名学生将获得奖学金。C3P项目将在三年时间内完成以下目标：(1)为C3P开发一个可复制的模式项目，将SFS赛博军团(R)项目扩展到社区大学；(2)招募试点院校，并提供涵盖关键项目和机构组成部分的教师/机构SFS能力建设学院；(3)支持C3P团队招募和保留30名高素质学生作为SFS学者参与C3P项目；(4)为SFS学者提供指导途径，包括通过一系列与NICE工作角色相关的评估来评估工作准备情况，并使用电子档案系统为学生提供潜在雇主的技能记录；(5)增加从事联邦工作的网络专业人员数量；(6)扩大潜在社区学院pi的数量和机构能力，为SFS计划提供有效的拨款/财政管理。该项目的联合资金由先进技术教育（ATE）和国家科学基金会STEM （S-STEM）项目奖学金提供，这反映了该项目与先进技术教育（ATE）项目的主要重点是社区学院的参与，以及S-STEM项目对有经济需求的优秀学生的财政和课外支持的一致性。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project from Whatcom Community College (WCC), in collaboration with California State University San Bernardino (CSUSB) will run an apprenticeship-like, cohort-based program known as the Community College Cyber Pilot (C3P) Scholars Program. The aim is to place highly qualified cybersecurity professionals in government positions, in alignment with the National Defense Authorization Act of 2018. This project will explore pathways for non-traditional students and veterans to enter the cybersecurity field and successfully complete a cybersecurity program and secure gainful employment in the field. In this case, the term "non-traditional student" refers to those who do not hold a prior technical degree but do hold a bachelor's degree. The long-term goal of the project is to build the institutional capacity required for community colleges to independently run successful SFS programs, as well as to increase the diversity of the student population in cybersecurity programs and the number of cybersecurity professionals in federal employment. WCC and CSUSB both have designations as Centers of Academic Excellence (CAE) Cyber Defense; furthermore, WCC runs CyberWatch West, the regional cybersecurity education consortium, while CSUB currently has an active CyberCorps(R): Scholarship for Service (SFS) program.The proposed C3P Scholars Program will run across six pilot colleges, including WCC, and a total of 30 students will receive scholarships. The C3P project has the following goals to be accomplished over a three-year timeframe: (1) Develop a replicable model program for C3P, expanding the SFS CyberCorps(R) program to community colleges; (2) Recruit pilot colleges and deliver faculty/institutional SFS capacity building academy covering critical program and institutional components; (3) Support C3P cohorts in recruitment and retention of 30 highly qualified students to participate as SFS scholars in the C3P program; (4) Provide guided pathway for SFS Scholars including assessing work readiness through a series of assessments related to NICE work roles and usage of an e-portfolio system for students to document their skills for potential employers; (5) Increase the number of cyber professionals working in federal jobs; and (6) Expand the number of potential community college PIs and institutional capacity for effective grant/fiscal management for the SFS program.Co-funding for this project is provided from the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) and NSF Scholarships in STEM (S-STEM) programs, reflecting alignment of the project with major emphases of the ATE program on involvement of community colleges and the S-STEM program on financial and co-curricular support for high-achieving students with demonstrated financial need.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.