Gannon University is proudly continuing its support of The Air Force Association’s CyberPatriot National Youth Cyber Education program for the third consecutive year as a silver sponsor of.
“Gannon University is pleased to continue its partnership with CyberPatriot as a silver sponsor of the National Youth Cyber Defense Competition,” said Karinna Vernaza, Ph.D., dean of the College of Engineering and Business. “This collaboration extends our engineering and computing education beyond the classroom and builds on our commitment to hands-on learning that is training future cybersecurity professionals to enter this high-demand industry.”
Gannon’s support is expanding STEM education outreach as it is proudly sponsoring 25 middle school and high school teams from across the country who are competing in AFA’s CyberPatriot National Youth Cyber Defense Competition this year.
These teams represent seven schools, including Centennial High School in Texas, Copley High School in Ohio, Kenai Peninsula in Alaska, South Forsyth High School in Georgia as well as multiple schools in Pennsylvania including Cheltenham High School, Erie County Technical School and McDowell High School.
Rounds one and two of the competition were completed in October and early November, during which several of Gannon’s sponsored teams achieved notable scores in the open team division, including South Forsyth High School’s top team placing first in the state of Georgia and 16th in the nation, Kenai Peninsula placing first in the state of Alaska, Copley High School’s top team placing first in the state of Ohio, Centennial High School placing seventh in the state of Texas, and Erie County Technical School placing 29th in the State of Pennsylvania. Gannon’s sponsored team from McDowell High School also achieved first place in the state of Pennsylvania and 62nd in the nation in the All-Service division.
CyberPatriot is the nation’s largest youth cyber education program and is AFA’s flagship STEM program dedicated to strengthening cyber skills among American youth. The program features the National Youth Cyber Defense Competition for high school and middle school students, AFA CyberCamps, an Elementary School Cyber Education Initiative and Literature Series, as well as CyberGenerations—a program aimed at equipping senior citizens with the skills needed to stay protected from cyber threats.
Gannon is a silver sponsor of CyberPatriot’s National Youth Cyber Defense Competition. Additional competition sponsors include the Northrop Grumman Foundation, Boeing, Microsoft, BNY Mellon, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and more.
