One of Augusta’s selling points is the burgeoning Cyber industry and the development of high-paying jobs in the CSRA.
Both buildings of the Georgia Cyber Innovation and Training Center were abuzz with students learning about the ever-growing field of cybersecurity.
Cyber Georgia STEMfest brought together 100 students from elementary schools in Georgia and South Carolina. The bi-annual event is a partnership of the Cyber Fusion Innovation Center and the Georgia Cyber Center with sponsors Parsons, Booz Allen Hamilton, SRS Community Reuse Organization, and SteelGate, LLC.
Armond Rouillard, SteelGate’s Chief Operating Officer, told the ABD community that outreach is important to connect with the next wave of potential employees.
“Part of the problem is the workforce. Today it’s middle school, in six months it’ll be the high school kids interested in this field and then entering the workforce, with the knowledge and being able to do things that take us so much farther than somebody just starting in their college career,” he explained. “Helps us as a company, but it also helps us as a country just to defend the network of the nation or solve whatever cyber and IT problems there are.”
The STEMfest events are unique to the learning experience for students that attend. Lessons learned are instructions that they do not get in their classrooms.
“They’re coming into a facility that we’re the only one still in the country, with academia, government, and private industry all under one roof,” said Todd Gay, the Cyber Center’s Director of Outreach and Engagement. “They’re able to come here, and they’re able to see two schools, Augusta University’s School of Computer and Cyber Sciences and Augusta Technical College, whether they want to go two years or four years. The main focus here is cyber security and technology, and innovation.”
Gay added that the other advantage is that students have the opportunity to interact with businesses in the cyber field.
“They’re able to talk to resident partners that are cybersecurity companies and talk about career pathways and talk about classes that they need to take in order to be able to fill a position like theirs,” he said.
Prior to joining SteelGate, Rouillard served 28 years in the military and said there have always been workforce shortages. He said, despite advances and automation, people are still needed to push the button and design what is behind it.
“You’ve got to have these really smart people, way smarter than I am now, to write the code, to design the products, to do all that, and so our way of helping is getting involved with the youth, with the school kids, but we also do internship programs with the colleges. We bring guys in part-time and integrate them. We’re always looking for a way to help people find their way in this field, because it’s so important to all of us and our workforce.”
Gay agreed, saying cyber will always be a growing field.
“There are so many different ways they can go with technology innovation, cyber security. And the problem is, we need more people to fill these positions. There are so many positions open, and that’s why we have these middle schoolers here today, to get them excited about cybersecurity,” he said.
Rouillard said the exposure the students get to cyber jobs is not necessarily when they will pursue it as a career.
“Some of them will drift. We’ve had a couple who started with cyber and now they’re interior design, or they do geology or something else, he said. “But the skills they learn, even in the basics of cybersecurity, help them in their personal and professional life for the rest of their life, because this isn’t going anywhere. It’s always there. It doesn’t matter what field you work in.”
There will be another STEMfest this fall for high school students.
