The Alliance for Cyber Education/ Fort Gordon Cyber District campers completed the regions first Virtual Advanced CyberPatriot Camp.

The team took on the challenge of providing cyber training in the virtual world during a global pandemic and excelled tremendously. The expertise provided from each teammate and camper made the unachievable, achievable.

This year’s Virtual CyberPatriot Advanced Camp was one for the record books and it has truly set a new level of excellence for the Alliance for Cyber Education/Fort Gordon Cyber District team.

AFA CyberCamps are designed for high school students new to cyber security or are experienced students yearning for more knowledge. Camps are hosted by approved organizations and institutions that register with the CyberPatriot Program Office. These organizations include – but are not limited to – AFA Chapters, schools, universities, CAP squadrons, companies in industry, boys’ and girls’ clubs, etc.

There are two types of AFA CyberCamps: standard and advanced. Standard AFA CyberCamp teaches beginner students the basics, while Advanced AFA CyberCamp incorporates more complex concepts geared towards students who have previously participated in a CyberCamp or participated in the CyberPatriot competition. Fifty middle and high schoolers completed the Alliance for Cyber Education/Fort Gordon Cyber District First, Virtual, Regional, Advanced CyberPatriot Camp.

Students from Georgia, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, California and Canada took part in the first Virtual Advanced CyberPatriot Camp in the State of Georgia and the largest in the region. Campers tackled complex cyber material including Cyber Ethics, Windows 10, Ubuntu and Cisco Networking. On the final day, CyberPatriot Competition Day, students competed against each other on advanced Windows 10 and Ubuntu 16 images.

The camp team’s instructors, Nicole Cliff (Georgia Cyber Center), Dave Besel (NSA Georgia), Tyler Veurink (science teacher at Paul Knox Middle School) and Staff Sgt. Abraham Spalding (Cyber Training Battalion) formed a true team of subject matter experts combining business, academia and government knowledge to ensure our campers were taught by the best our region has to offer.

The camp team consisted of MOSAIC Technologies Group (Priest Perry), the Georgia Cyber Center, the Cyber Protection Battalion (Maj. Joseph Stanley), NSA Georgia, SOFTACT Solutions (Alex Pugh), CyberPatriot Camp alumni (Evan Shaffer) and the Alliance for Cyber Education (ACE), Alliance for Fort Gordon team (Dr. Tom Clark).

The Alliance for Fort Gordon’s Alliance for Cyber Education committee was formed to promote cyber education throughout the Fort Gordon Cyber District. Our region’s school districts and this team of dedicated professionals won the CyberPatriot Center of Excellence for the entire nation in 2019 and are looking to repeat this achievement in 2020. One of the main efforts of the ACE committee is to organically grow a knowledge-based workforce focused on cybersecurity and IT.

“The Alliance for Cyber Education’s CyberPatriot summer camp opportunities are over for this summer, however, if you are interested in joining a Cyber- Patriot team for the 2020-2021 competition, please contact your middle school or high school guidance counselor,” said Dr. Tom Clark, executive director of the Alliance for Fort Gordon.

Teams for CyberPatriot XIII (2020-2021) must be created by October 15.

For more information on CyberPatriot, visit the CyberPatriot website at www.uscyberpatriot.org.