CyberPatriot Team heading to nationals
By: SAC PR
Friday, February 15, 2013
Tag: Archived
ITSA team to represent Alamo Academies at National CyberPatriot competition
For the third year in a row an Alamo Academies' Information Technology and Security Academy (ITSA) CyberPatriot team has won the San Antonio Mayor's Cyber Cup. The team will travel to Maryland on March 14-16 for the national finals.
This year’s team consists of Cory Nichols (junior, Seguin High School); Paul Hopson (senior, Canyon High School); Kenny Graves (senior, New Braunfels High School); Maggie Schmeltekopf (senior, New Braunfels High School); Jason Mirch (junior, Seguin High School); and Stephen La Rosa (junior, Canyon High School).
At the ceremony on Feb. 9, Mayor Julian Castro presented each member of the ITSA winning team a $1,000 scholarship, a leather bomber jacket, and a mini i-Pad.
The ITSA team is based in New Braunfels at the Central Texas Technology Center (CTTC). The dual credit students completed three rounds of competition to take the top spot in the competition that involves looking examining a computer’s operating system and detecting “open doors” in addition to opening and decoding files.
Troy Touchette, chair SAC Computer Information Systems, is the technical mentor for the team. The coach is Sandra Boyd, coordinator of Alamo Academies. Both instructors will be accompanying the students on the trip to National Harbor, MD., during Spring Break.
CyberPatriot is the premiere national high school cyber defense competition created by the Air Force Association to inspire high school students toward careers in cybersecurity or other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.
During their junior and senior years students take approximately half their classes in high school and the remainder at the Alamo Colleges. Graduates from the two-year program earn 31-34 college semester hours at no personal cost. Students can earn a Level I Certificate of Completion through the Alamo Colleges along with a high school diploma. There is also a paid summer internship between the junior and senior year that gives ITSA students a real-world experience and a paycheck.
For more information, visit the web site: www.alamo.edu/academies.
--SAC--