Six students have earned two-year scholarships facilitated by a Scholarship for Service Award this fall semester.
St. Cloud State is awarding up to six scholarships a year to undergraduate students in information technology security and graduate students in information assurance thanks to the five-year award from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Homeland Security.
Following graduation, the students will work for the government at any level in a cybersecurity role for a period of time equal to the length of their scholarship.
The next application window is spring 2017.
The fall 2016 Cybersecurity Scholarship for Service scholars are:
Undergraduate
- Blake Tyra, Hanover
- Austin Nuttall, Rochester
- Bobby Dorman, Carlton
Graduate
- Krystal Balduc, Saginaw
- William Smith, Sartell
- Matthew McCullough, Bluffton
The undergraduate scholarship will cover tuition, books, professional development and travel to the annual CyberCorps job fair and conferences and a stipend of $22,500 per year. The graduate scholarship will cover the same expenses and includes a stipend of $34,000 per year.
In addition to the scholarships, the students will also form a Community Cybersecurity Champions team responsible for bringing awareness of cybersecurity issues to the broader community through seminars, workshops and talks to area high school students, teachers and counselors.
Dorman is a transfer student from Lake Superior College in Duluth, which partnered with St. Cloud State in the grant to put on cybersecurity summer camps to encourage more young people to pursue a career in the field.
The Scholarship for Service program is also awarding a scholarship to a student from each Lake Superior College and Century College who will transfer to the information technology security program in fall 2017.
