Community Strong: MJC partnership creates CyberPatriot Boot Camp
Modesto Junior College is involved in a variety of local partnerships that include workforce preparation, economic development, and community service. One of these exciting programs is the CyberPatriot Summer Boot Camp, an MJC partnership with the National Youth Cyber Education Program, Stanislaus County Office of Education, Modesto City Schools, Patterson School District, Ceres School District and Turlock School District.
MJC held the first local CyberPatriot Summer Boot Camp in August of 2018, and registration is now open for a second camp on July 22-26, 2019 on MJC’s East Campus. The three-day Boot Camp held in 2018 introduced more than 40 high school students from around the county to the principles and skills of cyber security. Participants learned about cyber ethics, online safety, how computers work, and cyber threats. They worked on small teams, competing with other students around the country in a national cyber security competition.
The camp is an introduction to the ongoing national CyberPatriot program, which trains middle school and high school students for the critical careers in cyber security. Five local high schools now have CyberPatriot teams and others are interested in developing them. The camp is funded by the Strong Workforce initiative and is free for student participants and CyberPatriot advisors.
The CyberPatriot program was established by the Air Force Association and is designed
to attract participants to careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
(STEM) - including cybersecurity fields. This 
year’s camp participants will spend five-days learning hands-on cybersecurity principles
that include cyber safety and how to protect personal devices, and Windows and Linux
system security. They will also compete against students in other cyber camps across
the nation.
“We are especially proud of the student success of our first-year Enochs High team,” said Brent Wedge, professor of Computer Science at MJC. “Earlier this month students from the Enochs team presented a beautiful trophy to the mayor of Modesto during a City Council meeting from their victory at the California Mayors Cyber Cup challenge hosted by Fresno City College. The Enochs team will be representing the Central Valley region at a statewide competition hosted by Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo in June. We hope this encourages additional high school CyberPatriot teams to form in the Fall.”
Space in the July 2019 camp is limited to 60 student participants and reservations may be made online at https://mjccyberpatriotcamp.eventbrite.com. Participants must commit to attending all five days. Lunch and snacks are provided each day. A train-the-trainer opportunity is available for high school teachers and CyberPatriot coaches.
According to CyberSeek.org (https://www.cyberseek.org/heatmap.html) there are currently over 300,000 cybersecurity jobs open in the United States, including over 36,000 in California. The cybersecurity job report predicts there will be 3.5 million cybersecurity job openings by 2021 (https://cybersecurityventures.com/jobs). The median salary for professionals in these jobs is $90,120.
For more information, contact Brent Wedge, MJC professor of Computer Science at 575-7760
or wedgeb@mjc.edu.
Click here to view a list of MJC's many community partnerships for spring 2019.