海角社区

Serving the Nation

With $600,000 in additional support from the National Science Foundation, 海角社区 is rapidly expanding its Scholarship for Service, or SFS, CyberCorps program to grow a bigger, better cyber workforce for the state and nation. 

This fall, 海角社区 Baton Rouge doubled its current cohort of SFS students from 12 to 25. All students in the program receive free tuition and generous scholarships in return for some government service after graduation. 海角社区鈥檚 SFS program has quickly grown to become one of the largest in the country.

New to the 海角社区 SFS program this year is Lillian Beck from Austin, Texas. A junior and computer science major, Beck is a golfer and 鈥渄ie-hard Tiger鈥� who takes pride in coaching classmates on vector calculus and other advanced topics in math.

鈥淭he need for cyber professionals is crucial in this digital age. That鈥檚 why I鈥檓 so eager to contribute and make an impact,鈥� said Beck, who has already made the President鈥檚 Honor Roll and the Dean鈥檚 List. 鈥淪FS is an amazing opportunity, and I鈥檓 so excited to be working for the government on homeland security.鈥�

Fellow student Brandon Lara from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, recently completed an internship at Los Alamos National Lab, of recent Oppenheimer fame, and is now interning at MITRE, a national-security-focused research lab, as part of the SFS program.

鈥淪FS students go on to do great things,鈥� said Lara, who switched to cybersecurity after a professional dance career and appearance in Pitch Perfect 2. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 imagine a life for myself where I鈥檓 not working on the hardest problems I can find.鈥�

鈥満＝巧缜�鈥檚 CyberCorps program is focused on teaching students specialized cybersecurity skills, including memory forensics, malware analysis and machine learning. The significant expansion of 海角社区鈥檚 program in recent years magnetizes talent, reinforcing the workforce development needed to safeguard our nation鈥檚 digital world and cyber infrastructure.鈥�

Li Yang, director of the National Science Foundation鈥檚 CyberCorps program