CyberCorps Scholarship for Service: Preparing Future Cybersecurity LeADERS through Applied Learning Experiences

老道明大学(ODU)网络安全学院将通过其CyberCorps®服务奖学金(SFS)网络领袖计划解决网络安全领域对合格政府工作人员的需求。这一倡议将联合来自ODU、潮水社区学院(TCC)和托马斯·纳尔逊社区学院(TNCC)的教师，将应用经验完全整合到24名SFS学生的学术规划中。SFS学生将包括计划转学到ODU的社区大学学生和寻求网络安全学士和硕士学位的ODU学生。以ODU的领导者计划为基础，参与SFS网络安全的领导者将获得指导和经验，使他们走上通往政府网络安全职业生涯的道路。更具体地说，鼓励领导者参加与领导力、学术实习、多样性、企业家精神、研究和服务学习相关的课程或应用经验。学生通过开发电子档案袋(e-档案袋)来记录和展示他们的学习，电子档案袋在首字母缩略词“Leaders”中用小写的“e”表示。采用主动学习和其他高影响力教学策略的跨学科学术项目的结合，预计将培养出准备进入广泛的政府职业生涯并满足国家对熟练网络安全专业人员需求的有经验的毕业生。ODU网络安全学院提供本科生和研究生课程，是美国首批跨学科网络安全学校之一。合作机构TCC和TNCC都提供副学士学位，并被指定为国家安全局(NSA)网络防御教育学术卓越中心(CAE)，ODU的网络运营专业已被指定为NSA网络运营CAE。ODU的跨学科本科生和研究生网络安全课程包括法律、政策、领导力、跨学科写作、犯罪学、哲学、信息技术、计算机科学和计算机工程等课程。该方法将利用ODU的创新领导者计划，该计划鼓励学生参与综合性和应用型学习体验。除了开发电子投资组合、完成实习和从事服务学习外，SFS网络领导者还将参与网络安全学院和英联邦网络倡议提供的指导活动、结构化研究项目、跨学科编程和其他活动。学生的共同课程活动将与弗吉尼亚海岸网络创新中心协调，该中心是英联邦网络倡议(CCI)的一部分。该项目有可能为未来在NSA CAE指定项目之间转移学生的模式提供参考。该项目还将有助于提高政府网络安全工作人员的多样性，因为非洲裔美国人和西班牙裔学生占ODU网络安全学生的一半以上。该项目得到了CyberCorps®服务奖学金(SFS)计划的支持，该计划为设立或继续开展网络安全奖学金计划的提案提供资金，并与美国国家网络战略保持一致，以培养一支优秀的网络安全队伍。毕业后，奖学金获得者被要求在联邦、州、地方或部落政府组织的网络安全工作中工作，时间与他们的奖学金支持相同。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Old Dominion University (ODU) School of Cybersecurity will address the need for qualified government workers in cybersecurity fields through its CyberCorps® Scholarship for Service (SFS) Cyber LeADERS program. This initiative will align faculty from ODU, Tidewater Community College (TCC), and Thomas Nelson Community College (TNCC) to fully integrate applied experiences into the academic programming of 24 SFS students. The SFS students will include community college students planning to transfer to ODU and ODU students seeking Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in cybersecurity. Using ODU’s LeADERS program as a foundation, participating SFS Cyber LeADERS will receive guidance and experiences that put them on a pathway to a government career in cybersecurity. More specifically, LeADERS are encouraged to take courses or engage in applied experiences related to leadership, academic internships, diversity, entrepreneurship, research, and service learning. Students chronicle and demonstrate their learning through the development of an electronic portfolio (e-portfolio), which is represented by the lower case “e” in the acronym “LeADERS”. The combination of an interdisciplinary academic program that employs active learning and other high impact teaching strategies is expected to produce experienced graduates who are prepared to enter a wide range of governmental careers and address the national need for skilled cybersecurity professionals.Offering both undergraduate and graduate programming, the ODU School of Cybersecurity is one of the first interdisciplinary cybersecurity schools in the country. The partner institutions, TCC and TNCC, both offer associate’s degrees and have been designated as National Security Agency (NSA) Centers of Academic Excellence (CAE) in Cyber Defense Education and ODU’s Cyber Operations major has been designated as an NSA CAE in Cyber Operations. ODU’s interdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate cybersecurity programs include courses in law, policy, leadership, interdisciplinary writing, criminology, philosophy, information technology, computer science, and computer engineering. The approach will leverage ODU’s innovative LeADERS program, which incentivizes students to participate in integrative and applied learning experiences. In addition to developing an e-portfolio, completing internships, and engaging in service learning, SFS Cyber LeADERS will participate in mentoring activities, structured research projects, interdisciplinary programming, and other activities provided by the School of Cybersecurity and the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative. Student co-curricular activities will be coordinated with the Coastal Virginia Center for Cyber Innovation that is part of the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI). This project has the potential to inform future models of transferring students between NSA CAE designated programs. The project will also contribute to improving the diversity of the government’s cybersecurity workforce as African American and Hispanic students make up more than half of ODU cybersecurity students. This project is supported by the CyberCorps® Scholarship for Service (SFS) program, which funds proposals establishing or continuing scholarship programs in cybersecurity and aligns with the U.S. National Cyber Strategy to develop a superior cybersecurity workforce. Following graduation, scholarship recipients are required to work in cybersecurity for a federal, state, local, or tribal Government organization for the same duration as their scholarship support.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.