September 09, 2016
Students earn cybersecurity scholarship
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Nine students from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and regional community colleges are scholarship recipients from a National Security Agency grant that will prepare them for careers in cybersecurity.
The students are receiving $1,000 scholarships from the Southern Illinois Collegiate Cyber Co-op, which includes SIU’s School of Information Systems and Applied Technologies and seven regional community colleges.
Tom Imboden, associate professor in the School of Information Systems and Applied Technologies, said the program creates an incentive for students to study cybersecurity and pursue that as a career field. Applicants are required to invest time and effort completing a set of five security and related exercises to be eligible for scholarship consideration. All students who apply learn entry-level security skills as part of the application process, giving them a head start in their studies.
Community colleges involved are: John A. Logan College, Carterville; Kaskaskia College, Centralia; Lake Land College, Mattoon; Rend Lake College, Ina; Shawnee Community College, Ullin; Southeastern Illinois College, Harrisburg; and Southwestern Illinois College, Belleville.
Scholarship recipients, listed by institution, and hometown, if known, are:
SIU Carbondale
- Jonathon Farmer, senior, information systems technologies, Rockford.
- Hallie Martin, senior, information systems technologies, Atlanta, Ga.
John A. Logan College
- Quinten Bowen
- Zachary Scanlon
Kaskaskia College
- Corey Carsrud
- Marvin Lindsay
Lake Land College
- Cathy Sowa
Southeastern Illinois College
- Robert Butler
- Bobby Steward
In 2011, the university’s School of Information Systems and Applied Technologies earned the designation as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education from the Department of Homeland Security and the NSA.
For more information on the scholarship program, visit http://isat.siu.edu/.