MOULTRIE, Ga. – Students will get the chance to explore the cyber security field during the first Colquitt County High School MCJROTC CyberCamp later this month.
The Air & Space Force Association selected the CCHS Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps Program to host a CyberCamp this summer.
“I got this through my CyberPatriot team,” Lt. Col. Jason Perdew said in an interview Monday. “CyberPatriot is a computer network cybersecurity competition.”
CyberPatriot is the National Youth Cyber Education Program. It was created by the Air Force Association to inspire K-12 students toward careers in cybersecurity or other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines that are critical to the nation's future.
Perdew has been coaching a CyberPatriot team for the last four years. He coached two teams at CCHS last year, and he had two teams at his previous school for three years.
He said CyberPatriot has three divisions: the middle school division, the high school open division, which anybody can join, and the JROTC division.
“I mainly started it as part of my JROTC [program], but I wanted to make sure that I could grow the program and get kids interested in CyberPatriot,” Perdew said.
All week, students will learn the basics of cybersecurity, and on Friday the students will participate in a competition.
“It gives them a taste of what cybersecurity and what CyberPatriot is like,” he said. “Hopefully, I can encourage the kids to stay in CyberPatriot and join a team.”
On the first day, students will learn cyber ethics and the basics of Windows 10. Students will dive deeper into Linux and Cisco Networking for the rest of the week.
“Linux is a huge operating system that runs in the background that most people don't know about. We start to teach them about the Linux operating system and how that works, and the same thing with Windows. We got to teach them how to secure it,” Perdew said.
Students will create user accounts and firewalls, and they will learn how to fix vulnerabilities on Linux.
"Cybersecurity is such an important industry in today's Internet-connected world. There is a huge demand for trained cybersecurity professionals making it a great career opportunity,” Perdew said.
He said CCHS students have to make a graduation commitment to be either enrolled, enlisted, or employed.
“Students can do all three through cybersecurity,” Perdew said.
Paul Wood, a previous CyberPatriot team captain, enlisted into the Marine Corps for cybersecurity.
Perdew said his goal is to recruit into JROTC but he would still love it if kids got into cybersecurity in general.
The camp is funded by the Career, Technical, and Agriculture Education Department.
The camp will be held from Monday, June 20, to Friday, June 24. Students have the choice to attend two half-day sessions. The first session is from 8 a.m. to noon and the second session is scheduled from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Members of the current CyberPatriot team will also be attending the CyberCamp.
To participate, students must attend Williams Middle School, C.A. Gray Junior High School or Colquitt County High School. The camp is open to students in grades six through 12.
Perdew would like at least five students from each grade to attend.
“If I can get the young kids hooked on it, by the time they're seniors they are going to be awesome at cybersecurity. They'll have a lot of experience,” he said.
Up to 35 students can attend the camp. There are approximately 7 students already registered.
To register please, email Perdew at jason.perdew@colquitt.k12.ga.us or call (229) 890-6141 ext: 21675.
Gloss