High School students from across the state this week participated in a summer academy at the University of North Georgia that focused on cyber operations and cybersecurity.
The GenCyber Warrior Academy is a nine-day summer camp that is paid for by a grant from the National Security Agency. It is run by the Center for Cyber Operations Education, the Institute for Leadership and Strategic Studies and the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems at UNG.
"GenCyber is a summer experience for students to come live on campus and study ethical hacking, forensics, reverse engineering and a little bit of coding," Bryson Payne, director of the Center for Cyber Operations Education said.
Payne said while 189 high schoolers applied for the 2021 camp, only the top 40 were selected based on several factors including an essay and their school GPA. Of those, 34 are participating in this year's camp, include 19 males and 15 females.
Garv Gaur, a rising senior at Lakeview Academy in Gainesville and participant in the GenCyber Academy, said he's glad he applied for the camp.
"It's been incredible ... learning from like these really experienced professors, my peers that are also extremely experienced and have different outlooks to offer," Gaur said.
Bhuvana Kode, a recent graduate from South Forsyth High School, also attended the camp.
"At first, honestly, I came here not knowing what to expect, but it's actually been so fun," Kode said. "I've learned so much these past few days, it's been crazy."
At the camp, students get hands-on coding experience, but they also learn about hacking pieces of technology such as drones and modern vehicles.
Aside from the educational experiences, students who participate in the camp also learn about the college lifestyle, and they even get a taste of the ROTC at the University.
Jasmine Valentine, a rising junior majoring in computer science at UNG, is also an ROTC cadet and a counselor for the GenCyber camp. She said the students start their day with a bit of physical activity.
"We go and do physical activity, called PT for short ... but we don't go as intense as we would in the corps," Valentine said.
While Valentine helps with day-to-day operations at the camp now, she was once in the same shoes as the high schoolers who are participating in the camp. She says she participated in the camp several years ago during her time in high school, and it solidified her career interests.
"That's what sold the ROTC program to me, that's what sold cybersecurity to me, and then also it sold the school to me because I knew this was a really good cyber program," Valentine said.
There was one big change for the camp this year, according to Payne. First the first time ever, a second camp was held specifically for high school and middle school teachers a week before the camp for high school students.
"So this year we had 22 teachers participate, and that means in addition to the 34 students that are participating in this camp, we've got 22 teachers who can go back and teach a little bit more cybersecurity to hundred of students," Payne said.
To find more information on the GenCyber Academy, visit the UNG website. To view pictures from this year's GenCyber Academy, click the above photo gallery.
