Prof. Amy Ramson and Lisanette Rosario
The project is a virtual apprenticeship embedded into a cybersecurity policy and law enforcement compliance and career-readiness course offered at Hostos Community College, a two-year CUNY college located in the South Bronx. The entire course is delivered and worked on virtually. During the apprenticeship, students as cyber-interns, work in teams to solve real world cybersecurity challenges. They analyze case studies of fraud, sabotage, espionage, theft, or intellectual property theft through the perspective of different analyst job roles. Students work with course faculty, student peers, and industry experts as mentors. The team assignments require the students to use the National Institute of Standards and Technology Cybersecurity Framework (NIST-a uniform protocol used across industries to prevent and mitigate cybercrimes) in their analyses and learn how to communicate with law enforcement, executives, peers, and compliance regulators. Career-readiness skills are offered on a virtual basis and include “Access to the Grow with Google” Career Readiness curriculum; virtual assistance with preparing a resume, cover letter and other employment correspondence; access to “HIRECAIMANS” and “Symplicity”, two online databases to view internship and job postings: and virtual Individualized and group career counseling sessions.
This project’s success is abundant. The knowledge and skills obtained by the students in the project position them to be recruited for employment in cybersecurity with an associate degree. Alternatively, if students are transferring to a four-year college, they are exposed in depth to the field of cybersecurity to which they will likely have had no prior knowledge or role model in their community. This is success for the students, College and industry by diversifying the field. Another success for the College is that due to the project and the exponential growth of cybercrime, the criminal justice major at Hostos has become the largest program at the College outside of liberal arts. National recognition has been achieved as Hostos was named a top 10 finalist in 2023 for the Aspen Prize, which honors community colleges with outstanding achievement in five areas: teaching and learning, certificate and degree completion, transfer and bachelor’s attainment, workforce success, and equity for students of color and from low-income backgrounds. The course and apprenticeship enabled the college most recently to be accepted to apply for an NSF Advanced Technical Education grant to create an online cybersecurity major.
The project is cost-effective for all parties. The cost to the College is reduced since a larger number of students can be enrolled than in a face-to-face class. If this course becomes part of a state-approved online program, students outside the geographic area can be served. The cost to the students is decreased since students do not need to spend money commuting to a site. Industry’s costs are reduced since mentors can interact with potential recruits without paying to commute. Industry costs are reduced for onboarding training in soft skills since training will occur pre-employment at the College.