Great Smoky Mountains National Park contains some of the largest tracts of wilderness in the East and is a critical sanctuary for a wide variety of animals. Protected in the park are some 65 species of mammals, over 200 varieties of birds, 67 native fish species, and more than 80 types of reptiles and amphibians.
The symbol of the Smokies, the American Black Bear, is perhaps the most famous resident of the park. Great Smoky Mountains National Park provides the largest protected bear habitat in the East. Though populations are variable, biologists estimate approximately 1,500 bears live in the park, a density of approximately two bears per square mile.
Magdalena De La Cruz Cook-Garcia, Maggie's Salsa LLC., to Deliver Luncheon Remarks
Nancy Rosales, Abel 1950, Inc., to be awarded "Latina Entrepreneur of the Year"
Lucrecia Borchardt, Telemundo, to serve as Mistress of Ceremonies
San Francisco, CA [CapitalWirePR] August 28, 2014 - LATINA Style Inc., the premier company addressing the needs of the Latina professional and business owner in the U.S., will honor Nancy Rosales, Abel 1950, with the "Latina Entrepreneur of the Year" award in recognition for her achievements in business and commitment to the Latino community. This year, LATINA Style is celebrating 16 years of the LATINA Style Business Series (LSBS), making its fifth stop in San Francisco on August 28, 2014 at the San Francisco Airport Marriott Waterfront located at1800 Old Bayshore Hwy, Burlingame, CA 94010.
The LATINA Style Business Series is part of the largest and most successful business development program for Latina entrepreneurs in the nation. Since its launching in 1998, the program has visited over 110 cities across the nation with over 31,000 Latina entrepreneurs participating. The program's emphasis is on creating a solid business foundation for the Latina entrepreneur.
Maria Magdalena De La Cruz Cook-Garcia (Maggie) was born in Mexico in an orphanage. Her parents cared for over 200 children and through the years, legally adopted 60 children, and had 8 biological children of their own. Maggie graduated with an interior design degree, and in 2004, she started Maggie's Salsa when she entered a salsa contest in West Virginia and won by unanimous vote. In 2006 Maggie became Vice President of an interior design firm in West Virginia, and in 2007 she resigned her position to fully manage her business, Maggie's Salsa. Maggie's Salsa distribution has stretched as far as 30 US states and its products can be found in supermarkets like Walmart, and Sam's Club.
Nancy Rosalesis a driven, passionate television host and broadcasting professional. Her enthusiasm led her to pursue a career within the world of professional broadcasting from the start. In order to be successful within this environment, a great personality is paramount, but it works even better when matched with an electric vision and with a creative and out-of-the-box mindset. Nancy is a voiceover artist and social personality, often performing motivational speaking to enlighten entrepreneurs and media professionals alike.
The Business Series will exhibit expert presenters to speak and interact with the audience on several topics such as:The Essentials of a Successful Business, moderated by Hannah Kelley-Bell, Economic Development Specialist, San Francisco District Office, U.S. Small Business Administration; How to Bring Your Supplier Diversity to the Next Level, moderated by Maria Bonilla-Giuriato, President of Bonilla-Giuriato & Associates; Healthy Worker - Healthy Business, moderated by Waynee Lucero, Program Manager, CHCC with the Covered California.; and Latina Entrepreneurs Spotlight: Lessons Learned, moderated by Graciela Tiscareño-Sato, Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Gracefully Global Group, LLC.
The Business Series is also honored to have Ms. Lucrecia Borchardt, News Weather Anchor, Telemundo 48. Born in San Jose, Costa Rica, Lucrecia is the oldest of three sisters. She has a Mass Communication Degree with a concentration in Journalism. Lucrecia started her career in Costa Rica working as Reporter, Host and Anchor in different radio and television stations. Before joining Telemundo 48 she worked as an Anchor and Traffic Reporter on the morning show at Univision's Channel 14 in San Francisco. Lucrecia currently is part of Noticiero Telemundo 48 Primera Edicion (5am-7am) and Noticiero Telemundo 48 (10am-1030am).
LATINA Style has partnered with the following organizations: Title Sponsor: Nationwide Insurance. Platinum Sponsor: Walmart. Official Airline Carrier: Southwest Airlines. National Sponsor: Parents Step Ahead (PSA).Lead Media Sponsor: Telemundo 48; Community Partners:Hispanic Chambers of Commerce of San Francisco, Central California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce, Certified Educator, Fresno Area Hispanic Foundation, everyCircle.com, Latino Community Foundation, NSHMBA, Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center, San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, Greater San Jose Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, San Mateo County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, SBA - San Francisco, LAM Network, National Hispanic Organization of Real Estate Associates, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Alameda County (HCCAC), Women in Public Policy (WIPP); Media Partners: Capital Wire PR.
Whether you prefer biking or kayaking, there are lots of great places for recreation on mid-Atlantic waterways.
by Virginia Thompson
On a beautiful mid-July day, my husband and I biked the 25-mile Lehigh Gorge Trail along the Lehigh River in the Lehigh Gorge State Park. Donning our helmets and supplied with, food and drinking water, we started at White Haven and traveled downstream through the Pocono Mountains to Jim Thorpe, PA – following the same ground as the "Iron Horse" that pulled logs and coal for fueling America's industrial growth.
Along the way, we saw remnants of the canals and locks dating back to the nineteenth century that helped move goods to large urban areas, such as Philadelphia. While the area was mostly known for lumbering and coal, it was also widely recognized for its scenic beauty. Wildlife was so abundant in this area thatJohn Audubon visited Jim Thorpe in 1829 to sketch.
Biking along, I imagined what scenery folks riding the rails might have seen in those days. Just then, I saw several railroad tracks tucked between a wall of rock of Mount Pisgah and the river. Unbeknown to me, one of the tracks was still active and I was startled by a train coming around the bend, demonstrating the power of "rails with trails."
Though over-logging and catastrophic fires have reduced many of the communities that relied on lumber and shipping to distant memories, the beauty, history and recreational opportunities offered by some of these towns have granted them a kind of twenty-first century rebirth.
For example, the economy of Jim Thorpe, formerly Mauch Chunk ("sleeping bear" to the Leni Lenape Indians, who resided there), is now based largely on its water-oriented recreational resources. In addition to bicycling like we did, white-water rafting down the Lehigh River is also a popular option.
But, while we've seen significant improvement in the quality of our rivers and streams in the four-plus decades since the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, many of our waterways remain impaired by pollution. Whether you are white-water rafting, kayaking, or enjoying our rivers and streams in other ways, there are resources to help you find out about water quality in the area you plan to visit.
You can check the lists of impaired watersprepared by your state, or put technology to use by downloading apps that tell you what, if any impairments, impact a particular body of water.
Do you check on water quality before you head out for water-related recreation? Let us know what tools you find most useful!
About the author: Virginia Thompson hails from northeastern Pennsylvania and is the EPA Region 3 Coordinator for the Exchange Network, a partnership of federal and state governments providing improved access to environmental data to make better and more timely decisions.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 28, 2014 – The Department of Veterans Affairs today launched an improved version of the GI Bill Comparison Tool, which was first launched in February 2014.
The GI Bill Comparison Tool is designed to make it easier for veterans, service members, and family members to estimate their GI Bill education benefits and learn more about VA's approved college, university, and other education and training programs across the country. It also provides key information about college affordability and value so beneficiaries can choose the best education program to meet their needs.
In the past six months, nearly 350,000 people have accessed the tool on VA's GI Bill website. The top schools searched by users include: American Public University, Harvard, University of Texas at Austin, Arizona State University, and University of Washington.
VA successfully trademarked GI Bill to prevent its fraudulent use for recruiting purposes and to protect this publicly-owned intellectual property.
"We are excited to see how veterans respond to the wealth of information now available on the updated GI Bill Comparison Tool" said VA's Undersecretary for Benefits Allison A. Hickey. "We're grateful for the chance to work with our partners at the departments of Defense and Education to ensure beneficiaries are informed education consumers."
The updated version of the GI Bill Comparison Tool has new functionality, including a more robust GI Bill benefits calculator and additional information pertinent to the Veteran population (e.g., identifies schools with student veteran groups, VetSuccess on Campus program, and those that have agreed to the 8 Keys to Success).
The GI Bill calculator provides a personalized estimate of Post-9/11 GI Bill tuition and fee, housing allowance, and book stipend benefits that would potentially be paid to the student.
The calculator prepopulates the tuition and fee estimates from the ED's Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. The veteran indicator section now contains new information on schools' student veterans groups, VetSuccess on Campus program and Yellow Ribbon agreement status.
The GI Bill Comparison Tool is one item in a series of resources VA has launched in response to the President's Executive Order 13607, signed April 27, 2012, which directs agencies to implement and promote "Principles of Excellence" for educational institutions that interact with veterans, service members and their families, and to ensure beneficiaries have the information they need to make informed choices about VA education benefits and approved programs. As students return to school this fall, VA is committed to providing the support and information they need to succeed.
Since April 2012, VA has deployed the GI Bill Comparison Tool, the GI Bill Feedback System, and offered a free academic-readiness tool online. In addition, VA, the Department of Education and Department of Defense have agreed to new Veteran-specific outcome measures and signed a memorandum of understanding to exchange information, which will ensure greater compliance from schools receiving military and Federal education benefits.
The Post-9/11 GI Bill is a comprehensive education benefit created by Congress in 2008. Veterans and service members who have served on active duty for 90 or more days since Sept. 10, 2001, are eligible for the benefit. The Veterans Benefits Administration, which administers the Post-9/11 GI Bill program, has distributed more than $43 billion in the form of tuition and other education-related payments to more than one million veterans, service members, and their families, and to the universities, colleges, and trade schools they attend.
Brides-to-be have long checklists for planning their big day. Dress, flowers, venue, vows, will there be a sit-down dinner or hors d'oeuvres and crudités? Who will be in the wedding party?
"Every bride wants her wedding to be perfect and by that, many mean that they want the event itself and themselves to be absolutely beautiful," says Eric Gulbrandson, a wedding photographer and author of the new book, "Dream Wedding Secrets: The All Important G.S.F," (www.dreamweddingsecrets.com).
"But a perfect wedding is also one that people remember months and years later as a wonderful event where they thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Think about it – no bride wants her wedding remembered as a disaster!"
The secret is to put a high priority on what Gulbrandson calls the G.S.F. – Guest Satisfaction Factor.
"It's how others perceive your wedding," he says. "Most brides do want their guests to be able to enjoy their wedding, but they overlook the G.S.F. because all the advice is geared toward beauty and budgets."
Gulbrandson interviewed hundreds of wedding guests and compiled more than 200 do's and don'ts for brides-to-be for ensuring a high G.S.F. Among them:
• If you invite children, arrange a supervised activity area for them. Couples often include children on their guest list because they contribute to the family atmosphere and celebration, but weddings are not child-centered events. Kids get bored; the wedding day is often a long one with extended periods of sitting quietly and an abundance of adults consuming alcohol. Help parents and children enjoy the event by arranging for a supervised activity area on the outskirts of the reception. A couple of teenaged relatives may appreciate earning some money for overseeing arts and crafts projects and games. Hiring relatives for this job will help keep the costs reasonable.
• Don't make costumes a requirement for your themed wedding. Whether you've got your heart set on a Renaissance faire or zombie nuptials, don't require your guests to shell out money buying or renting costumes! Yes, you can ease any financial burden by requesting they wear costumes in lieu of buying gifts, but that doesn't address the potential for physical and emotional discomfort. Sure, all your friends may be LARPers, but if Uncle Howard and Aunt Betty are not, they may not enjoy wearing capes and carrying swords to your ceremony.
• Don't plan your wedding for a holiday weekend.Occasionally, brides plan their wedding for a three-day holiday weekend thinking it will help out-of-towners who want to attend. However, it also boosts the odds of local guests being out of town! Given that most working people have only two guaranteed three-day weekends a year, many plan ahead for them. Additionally, hotel and rental car prices tend to go up during holidays, and traffic doubles. Play it safe by avoiding calendar holidays and, of course, Super Bowl Sunday.
• With food and drink, if you have to choose between quantity and quality, choose quantity. Nobody will mind if the chicken skewers aren't the best they ever had, but they will if you run out of them! While taste and presentation are important, having enough food and drink available throughout the event is more important than a glamorous presentation. If you have children at your wedding, you can keep costs down -- and make them happy -- by planning a separate menu of, say, chicken nuggets and macaroni-and-cheese.
• When it's all said and done, don't ruin your perfect wedding by failing to follow through with that time-honored (for good reason) custom of sending thank-you notes. "Technically, accepted protocol allows guests a year after the wedding to send a gift, so you may be on the receiving end for quite some time!" Gulbrandson says. "Keep a list and send handwritten thank-you's as quickly as you can. Most guests and experts agree that one to three months after the wedding is fine, but my advice is to get on it quickly!"
About Eric Gulbrandson
Eric Gulbrandson is a longtime wedding photographer who began compiling interviews for "Dream Wedding Secrets: The All-Important G.S.F.," (www.dreamweddingsecrets.com), in 2009. As a wedding photographer, he heard many happy guests – and many unhappy ones – and realized that most publications offering wedding advice focused on either making the bride and wedding more beautiful, or planning the wedding on a limited budget. When interviewing guests, he asked one primary question, "What makes a wedding great or not so great for you as a guest?" He compiled thousands of stories and responses to derive consensus opinions on essential Guest Satisfaction Factors.
The following is a guest post by Sara Duke, Curator of Popular & Applied Graphic Arts, Prints & Photographs Division.
The Library of Congress has long collected cartoon art and illustration, including editorial cartoon and comic strip drawings. In the last fifteen years, we've expanded the scope to include original drawings for alternative comics, comic books, and graphic novels. Highlights from this more recent collecting effort include:
mock-ups for Jules Feiffer'sPassionella and other early graphic books
original wood engravings from the wordless novel by Lynd Ward, Prelude to a Million Years
exquisite scratchboard drawings by Eric Drooker for Flood
alternative comic and mini-press art from the Small Press Expo Collection
the perennial favorite, the original drawings from Amazing Fantasy #15 for the first time Spider-man appeared in a comic book.
As the Library of Congress hosts the 14th annual National Book Festival on Saturday, August 30, we're delighted that graphic novels will be part of the celebration. In addition to the Graphic Novel Super Session on Saturday evening, several cartoonists, illustrators and writers who have worked in the medium will be appearing all day [view the schedule of sessions and speakers].
If you're in the Washington, D.C., area on Saturday, come sample the visual and literary delights! If you're not able to visit in person, look out for the Webcasts that will allow everyone to savor the event.
JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas, Aug. 28, 2014 – A hit-and-run driver robbed Staff Sgt. Michael Smith of his arm and nearly his life, but failed to impact his single-minded determination.
Army Staff Sgt. Michael Smith prepares to cycle in the Warrior Games Trials at West Point, N.Y., in June 2014. Smith qualified for cycling, but opted to compete in swimming and track and field at the Warrior Games in Colorado next month. Courtesy photo (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.
"My commitment was to staying in the Army for 20 [years]," Smith said. "There was no way I was going to be shortchanged due to someone else's negligence."
After two years of intense rehabilitation and training at Brooke Army Medical Center, Smith's persistence paid off. An above-the-elbow amputee, Smith met every standard and was approved earlier this month to return to duty as a career soldier.
"I'm very excited about what the future holds," the 15-year veteran said. "With or without my injury, I want my daughter to know what true commitment looks like."
Commitment never wavered
In the years since his accident, Smith's commitment has never wavered.
A recruiter in Nashville, Tennessee, at the time, Smith was riding his motorcycle when a texting driver slammed into him from behind. He flew over the guardrail and was then hit midair by a driver coming from the opposite direction.
"I was knocked unconscious on impact, and when I woke up I was lying on the highway," Smith recalled. "My boots and helmet had come off, and my arm was hanging on by the skin inside my jacket sleeve."
Smith tried to move off the road but was unable. The texting driver had driven off but the second driver, a Navy corpsman, rushed over and tended to his wounds until the ambulance arrived. In the coming months, Smith underwent six surgeries due to infection, which eventually claimed most of his right arm.
Miraculous turnaround and rehabilitation
Not long afterward, Smith had another brush with death when he suffered kidney failure. His father drove up from Amarillo, Texas, he said, and sat by his bedside praying for hours.
"The next couple of days, I made a miraculous turnaround," Smith recalled.
Facing a long rehabilitation and based on a recommendation from his cousin, who works at Brooke Army Medical Center here, Smith requested to be assigned to BAMC's Warrior Transition Battalion.
A week-and-a-half later, he arrived at the Center for the Intrepid, BAMC's outpatient rehabilitation center. Smith's goal was to return to active duty, but he knew he was facing an uphill battle.
"I spoke to the CFI staff and they pushed me to do everything," he said. "I knew I had to prove I could do just as much if not more than anyone else."
Focusing on sports
With this goal in mind, the former high school athlete dove into every sport possible. He mastered shooting firearms. He ran Spartan races, Tough Mudders, and half-marathons. Tough Mudders are 10- to 12-mile obstacle courses designed to test strength, stamina and teamwork skills.
Smith also went rock climbing, skiing and snowboarding. He swam, cycled and took part in track and field. He joined soccer, basketball and kickball leagues.
Earlier this month, Smith nervously appeared before the Physical Evaluation Board. Yet he felt confident they'd approve his request to remain in the Army. He was thrilled when they declared him fit for active duty.
"I've been committed to the Army my entire adult life," he said. "I feel very blessed that I have the opportunity to continue to serve."
Return to duty, promotion
Smith, who is slated to be promoted to sergeant first class this week, hopes to resume his prior career in field artillery.
"I just want to be a regular soldier, go to combat if needed," he said. "I honestly feel like there's nothing I can't do now, thanks to the support from my family, friends and the staff at the CFI who were with me every step of the way."
As he awaits orders, Smith is filling his time with his other passion: sports. He's slated to represent the Army in track and field and swimming at the Warrior Games next month, and continues to cycle daily in hopes of making the 2016 Paralympic team.
Motivating others
Smith said he believes to this day that he lost his arm for a reason.
"I would like to inspire and motivate others struggling with mental or physical challenges," he said. "No one should let their injury determine who they are or who they want to be."
Seeing words two and three at a time improves focus, helps with comprehension
Matthew Schneps is a researcher at Harvard University with a doctorate in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He also happens to have dyslexia, so reading has always been a challenge for him. That is, until he got a smartphone. Schneps soon found that for him, a smartphone was easier to read than a paper or a book. But, was it just him? Or, had he stumbled onto something that could help others with dyslexia?
Schneps was at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysicsat the time, specializing in how people learn science. With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), he decided to put his smartphone theory to the test. The faculty and about 100 students at the Landmark School near Boston volunteered to take part. The high school specializes in helping students overcome learning disabilities, such as dyslexia.
Schneps and his team monitored students with dyslexia while the students read to see if reading off smartphones and tablets would improve the students' comprehension of STEM subjects--science, technology, education and math. He found that reading off an iPod benefitted those dyslexic students who exhibit signs of visual attention deficits. What helped was to show only two or three words on a line. Schneps says that in this age of electronic publishing, his research lends new hope to one out of every five people who currently struggles with reading. For many, simply reconfiguring the layout of the text on an electronic reader may make all the difference.
"NSF's investment in this educational research project reflects our commitment to advancing the learning and participation of students with disabilities in the STEM fields," says Mark Leddy, a program director, who manages NSF research on disabilities and STEM education within the agency's Directorate for Education and Human Resources.
The research in this episode was supported by NSF award #1131039, Investigating a Framework for STEM-Reading to Support Secondary School Students with Reading Disabilities.
Today, we are announcing a new opportunity to advance teacher leadership. But, for it to succeed, we need your voice to be a part of it.
Since day one on the job, many teachers have shared with me an overwhelming desire to excel in the profession, lead others, and to have a stronger voice. Too often, great teachers leave the classroom because they lack avenues to exercise their leadership – and that's a loss for our students, our schools and for the profession. As I've heard this common refrain from teachers, I thought it was critical to respond. In the midst of dramatic change in education, we need to give our teachers genuine opportunities to be leaders without leaving their classrooms.
To promote and accelerate opportunities for teachers to lead without leaving the classroom, we announced one of our most exciting initiatives earlier this year – Teach to Lead. This initiative builds on years of work to elevate the teaching profession, particularly through ourRESPECT effort, and on the leadership of our Teacher and Principal Ambassador Fellows, who advise our team on key decisions and represent the Department externally. Together with the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, welaunched Teach to Lead to advance student outcomes through expanding opportunities for teacher leadership. And, to achieve this vision, my team and our partners committed to identify, spotlight, and support promising models for teacher leadership across the country.
Teach to Lead is a collaborative effort to advance student achievement by opening doors for all teachers to engage in meaningful leadership opportunities, while remaining in the classroom and in the profession they love. Most importantly, this initiative should be shaped by your thoughts, experiences, and ideas. The shape of teacher leadership shouldn't be dictated from outside the profession, it should be decided and shaped by teachers themselves, in partnership with principals and other educators.
That's why today we're unveiling a key platform to spur more ideas, more conversation, and more collaboration around teacher leadership – Commit to Lead.
Commit to Lead is a public, online community that directly engages teachers and other educators to define what teacher leadership can and should be in their communities, so that collectively we can help make it part of the fabric and culture of every school. It builds on the great work that already exists in the field, and invites the creation of new ideas.
Through this platform, educators will have the opportunity to share ideas and get feedback from peers and collaborators nationwide. It offers a place to spark discussion and build momentum around the best teacher leadership ideas and strongest commitments you can come up with – whether you're a veteran teacher-leader with best practices to share, or you're a novice who's just beginning to get engaged in the conversation. The launch of this site represents one step in our ongoing commitment to listen to educators and support their vital leadership of their profession.
Using Commit to Lead, participants can vote on each other's ideas, allowing the most promising ideas to rise to the top. We'll stay a part of the conversation, so that we're learning from your invaluable experience and knowledge, but also so you can benefit from resources and contacts at our more than 100 partner organizations. The ideas that this online community shares – the ideas fostered, developed, and supported by teachers everywhere – will help to drive a number of regional leadership labs for teachers. At these convenings, featuring teams of teacher leaders and experts from across our partner organizations, your ideas will become plans and, soon, those plans will become actions.
Teach to Lead is all about giving educators the power and a seat at the table – and through this virtual community, the chance to share and develop your ideas on a massive scale is in your hands. Already, we've heard of great ideas like the classroom structure reorganization led by 5thgrade teacher Vicky Edwards and the school-wide writing program developed by Rhea Espedido, a reading interventionist who wanted to boost student success in writing throughout her entire school.
We want to hear the next great idea – will you be the one to share it?
The National Security Agency (NSA) is host to one of the most inclusive and formidable cybersecurity training programs in the world. It's a program designed to not only train the future cybersecurity force, but to improve the skills of the teachers – and even civilian counterparts – as well.
It's called the College of Cyber.
Steven LaFountain is the dean of the College of Cyber at the NSA. Now, you might be thinking of this cyber collegiate opportunity as a windowless room with uncomfortable chairs and bright white lights (Men in Black-style) but it's not quite so comically impractical.
"[The College of Cyber is] a new school we stood up within the National Cryptologic School," Dean LaFountain explains. "It's responsible for education and training of the cyber-related workforce for the NSA, and we also support training of Cyber Command personnel."
The College of Cyber is actually a two-fold part of the same branch of a program within the NSA called the Centers of Academic Excellence program. According to Mr. LaFountain, the program is focused more on getting universities to include (in their existing cyber training programs) the types of fundamental computer science training and education that they (meaning the NSA) needs.
This means when they go to hire people for the jobs they need, they don't have to train them on basic computer science. The NSA can just train them specifically on what they do.
"A lot of schools in the recent years have gotten away from our needs because the world has changed so much," Dean LaFountain says.
"A lot of computer science programs now focus on application-layer technology and mobile technology, and we're still looking deeper than that. We need that focus on the deeper levels of technology."
So who are the students, and where do they come from? Are they members of the NSA already, or college hopefuls, or high school kids interested in mastering the Internet? Actually, it's all three.
The schools looking to be a part of the Centers of Academic Excellence (CAE) program are varied. Some of the military school houses have some cybersecurity training, a lot of the private institutions, state colleges and universities do cyber education. If a private university, for example, becomes qualified for CAE status, they're given grants to help students integrate into the program.
The schools advertise when they have these grants, and students find out about them individually through their schools, or through presentations that the NSA does at various events around the country. They also might find out through the National Science Foundation.
"The students at the schools that we designate are just students from around the country who are interested in computer science or engineering with a focus on cyber."
Internally, in the College of Cyber, the students are the employees. It's like a mini university on the NSA "campus". They have a course catalog with descriptions of all their courses, and students around the agency can sign up for courses as they offer them.
GenCyber students participate in a class during a summer camp organized by the NSA. (Photo from the NSA/Released)
The goal is to increase the pipeline of students coming out of college with a good, basic understanding of cyber, Dean LaFountain explains. That way they don't have to spend 10-18 months bringing them up to speed before we can put them on mission. If they're already prepared from the moment they walk in the door that means they can put their new employees on mission right away.
"The goal is to get about 20-25 schools designated as Schools of Academic Excellence in Cyber Operations," Dean LaFountain says. "We defined a set of academic content that we require and they map their curricula to it, and if their curricula meets all of our requirements they get designated as one of our CAEs."
This program helps the military as well. A lot of the military missions are related to cyber security, and therefore have needs for the same skills. A lot of the students who graduate with these programs under their belts could go to work for the DoD, or the NSA, or within the police force, or the intelligence community.
"The purpose of the program was to create students with better skills for the intelligence, military and law enforcement communities."
One of the strongest benefits to the students looking to attend this program is that it trains them for jobs which are actually in demand right now.
"There are lots of studies saying the estimates are that there are hundreds of thousands of cybersecurity-related jobs in the workforce that are vacant today,"Dean LaFountain points out. "They're in demand, they're very employable, they'll easily find jobs. One of my colleagues came up with an alternative definition for STEM. Instead of science, technology, engineering and math, he says it should mean 'start to earn money'. It definitely gives them the skills that they will easily find a job."
The program isn't just for college students or NSA employees. It goes beyond that.
GenCyber students participate in a class during a summer camp organized by the NSA. (Photo from the NSA/Released)
This summer the NSA created a second program that they're excited about called GenCyber. In partnership with the National Science Foundation, they gave grants to a small number of universities around the country to host summer camps for middle and high school students and/or teachers. Some of the schools to participate where theUniversity of Arizona, Mississippi State, University of New Orleans, Purdue, Towson, and Dakota State.
Some of the camps focused on teachers with the intention that the teachers would be armed with all the educational materials that they need to teach cyber fundamentals to their students.
Some of the camps were focused on specifically on students. For example, the Towson camp focused solely on high school senior girls, and it was weight weeks and the focus was on the basics of secure programming so they can program more robustly, and lead to less vulnerabilities. As a side benefit they also get college credit at Towson University for going through that camp.
One of the key requirements ion this program isteaching ethical behaviors in cyberspace. The importance of online ethical conduct is tantamount to the training success, as well as teaching technical skills and expertise.
Some of the things that students will learn is how to analyze systems," Dean LaFountain explains. "They'll learn how to find weaknesses, they'll learn how to actually exploit those weaknesses potentially, but they have to understand the legal limits of what they can do and the ethical situation that they're in in such that they need to behave as good citizens in cyberspace."
He adds that while the students might develop the skills that could allow them to do bad things, they have to know what the limits are. It's okay to do things in the school lab, or in the lab at NSA, but not to practice that at home.
"You don't practice that on the Internet in the wild because it's not safe," he says.
For those interested in being a part of the Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber Operations, program, all the information you need is here at www.nsa.gov. It lists all the information about the program requirements and the schools that are participating in the program.
Dean LaFountain emphasizes that this program is designed to encourage and train people interested in a career in cyber security. With the right information, armed with the right resources, you never know where those skills might take you.
"Cyber is in our lives far more than most people might realize," Dean LaFountain says. "Our cars are now all computer controlled. More and more houses are being automated. It's very important that we get these systems right. For our own personal safety and privacy, and security, from a personal and a society and a national level."
Thanks to Steve LaFountain and the National Security Agency for their contributions to this story.
———- Jessica L. Tozeris the editor and blogger for Armed with Science. She is an Army veteran and an avid science fiction fan, both of which contribute to her enthusiasm for science and technology in the military.
Disclaimer: The appearance of hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by the Department of Defense of this website or the information, products or services contained therein. For other than authorized activities such as military exchanges and Morale, Welfare and Recreation sites, the Department of Defense does not exercise any editorial control over the information you may find at these locations. Such links are provided consistent with the stated purpose of this DOD website.
