We can easily donate money or give hardware, but it’s the time that we give that really gets young people going.
About five years ago what started as occasional volunteering at my son’s robotics after-school program has morphed into a full force nonprofit program that exposes middle and high school students to hands-on engineering and technology projects.
As a parent of two children, I have often lent a hand with my children’s after-school activities. I coach my daughter’s softball team and, when I saw there was a need, got involved with my son’s robotics club. The teacher was overwhelmed and had little bandwidth but the students’ interest was strong. I was particularly impressed that these youngsters were asking about concepts that I helped to teach in graduate-level computer science courses! We enrolled the students in a VEX Robotics competition, a competition where student teams are tasked to design and build a robot to complete exercises such as throw balls, do chin-ups, or achieve other engineering challenges. There was a group of students that wanted to take it further. Some wanted to learn about underwater robotics, others were interested in rocketry or zero robotics (robotics related to space), so we thought – what can we do to expand this?
Hungry for More – Virginia State Champions
Last year, a group of parents got together and we organized a nonprofit under the U.S. STEM Foundation called Engineering Explorer Post 1882, a program that stems from the Learning for Life organization that focuses on building young people’s technical skills. Specifically focusing on engineering and technology, our Explorer Post includes twenty-five students from eight middle and high schools in the Haymarket, Virginia area.
Three middle school and one high school teams entered the 2015 VEX competition that happened in April this year. While preparing for the competition, we were able to borrow several robotics kits and purchase some unique items (in part thanks to Symantec’s Matching Grants program!) and the young engineers worked tirelessly on their robots. At the culmination in February, three of our four student teams successfully made it to the Virginia State Championship. Two of them came out as State Tournament Champions! The teams that won, the Pineapple Pigs high school team and the All About the Base middle school team, went on to compete in the world competition, finishing in the top 100! All the teams worked really hard spending every Tuesday and Thursday preparing and giving up most of their Saturdays so we are proud that their efforts paid off. This coming year the students have already started prepping for the upcoming VEX competition and we need to purchase our own robot kits as the loaners from last year are not available; this school year we are also getting more students involved, as the demand is growing.
Robotics is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many more STEM related projects buzzing around and this year, the students decided to plunge into my world.
Expanding into the Cyber World
This school year the students wanted to dive into the cybersecurity world. It’s an area that is more fluid and intangible and they were all intrigued to learn more about it. Last school year a few students participated in CyberPatriot, a national competition sponsored by the U.S. Air Force that teaches defense of computers.
| Check out the interview with Dan Guido, NYU Polytechnic’s Hacker in Residence, where he talks about the learning benefits of Capture the Flag competitions, such as CyberPatriot. |
I recently hosted the first class this school year where I shared with them different Cyber related careers, how they can get into the field, and what education they need. We then got hands-on as a Cyber Security Penetration Tester by using the Symantec Cyber Security Simulation – thanks to Brian Varner and Symantec’s Cyber Simulation team.
The kids were really energetic and found the hands-on part very challenging. The intent was to work through a few of the scenarios and then let them compete, but when they found it a bit overwhelming, we changed tactics a little, and spent several hours capturing the flags together. This step-by-step method turned out to be a great way to teach the thought process, as we white-boarded each goal, what we knew, and how we would go after capturing the desired information.
You don’t know what you don’t know, and guiding them through the simulation allowed me to share my tips and the tools out there that are available to them. It’s important to expose young people not only to the career opportunities, but also to the community and systems that are available. I suggested that they volunteer their time to small business or nonprofits to build their hours to get their Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification.
The students practicing cybersecurity exercises using the Symantec Cyber Security Simulation.
The Symantec Cyber Security Simulation team was extremely helpful every step along the way, and were instrumental in allowing these students to gain an understanding of the Cyber related careers that they may want to work towards! In particular, Brian Varner, Stan Kiefer, Mike Garvin, and Jimmy Griffin; many others were probably involved, and I thank them too!
The students that came out to the cybersecurity class on a Saturday.
We will continue to build on the cyber program in our Explorer Post and I plan to give more classes to expose the students to other cyber related opportunities. The next class will focus on the cyber analyst role, the counterpart to the penetration tester. And this school year, our middle school and a high school teams are already preparing for the CyberPatriot competition coming up in January!
Giving Back to Our Community
At Explorer Post 1882 we want each of the youngsters to excel and learn, but we also really reinforce the message of giving back. Just as I and other parents volunteer our time to share our experience with these young people, we want them to also share what they’ve learned and contribute to the community and to those less fortunate.
The teams have volunteered time to help run the actual VEX competition – they helped set up, tear down, and some of the high school students acted as judges for the middle school events. The All About the Base middle school team actually won the Community Award at the VEX Robotics World Competition for their work in the community.
All About the Base team accepting the Community Award at the VEX World Competition.
Recognizing that many students do not have the same advantages in life, the team got involved with a program rebuilding computers for donation to underprivileged students. Virginia has a program where excess computers from government agencies are available for reconditioning. The students dissected, cleaned, and rebuilt twenty computers, loaded them with antivirus software and a new printer, then they presented the systems to underprivileged families. The young engineers also taught the families how to use their new computers. While it was a lot of work for them since it was during the middle of exams and VEX competitions, the heartfelt thanks from the families gave them a view of how they can really impact the lives of those around them.
This year the students are looking to do the same thing and hope to donate even more computers than last year to families in need.
Why This All Matters
There are many reasons why this all matters from an individual development perspective to a community-building exercise all the way to building a responsible workforce for our future. On a basic level, math can be boring for young people when they have to learn about it through a book. But when you ask them to build a robot and make it move, then it becomes hands-on, applied learning. That is when it clicks. Projects that give young people a chance to learn by doing are more interesting for the students and more effective for their learning.
These young people have digital mindsets and they are excited about technology and cybersecurity, but they don’t know how to get to where we are as successful technologists or where to get the information. They are hungry for our experience.We are accountable to build responsible youth and build a future pipeline of engineers, scientists, and cybersecurity professionals. Right now we are in a cybersecurity crisis because we simply do not have enough professionals to fill these needed positions. We have a chance to help young people from all walks of life reach these opportunities, but we need to provide the guidance – as I mentioned we don’t know what we don’t know and we have the opportunity to share what’s available to them.
What continues to drive me is when I see those Ah-Ha moments and when I get to write stellar recommendations for college applications to help them get to the next step. Young people are looking for good adults in their life; they want to know how to be successful and what steps they need to take.
It goes without saying that all this would not have been possible without the time from other individuals from Symantec and the community at-large. The Cyber Simulation team at Symantec generously helped and I would love to get more people involved because there are more opportunities than people can imagine. On the near term, I would love to get more people to come teach short classes on securing systems. Yet, if I were to dream big, I would like to inspire everyone to get involved… especially our executives through speaking events at local schools related to cyber and the careers available - after all, the youth of today are where we are going to be hiring from very soon and relying upon to secure us.
A collage of pictures from Explorer Post 1882’s first year! They also made a video highlighting all the activities.
Leon Davidson is Symantec's Federal Intelligence Account Manager