As part of our ongoing partnership with Baltimore City Public Schools, we supported the formation and launch of the school district’s first CyberPatriot teams. The two teams from Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School have been competing in CyberPatriot XVI which began on October 19.
CyberPatriot is the National Youth Cyber Education Program created by the Air & Space Forces Association to inspire K-12 students toward careers in cybersecurity or other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. At the core of the program is the National Youth Cyber Defense Competition, the nation's largest cyber defense competition that puts high school and middle school students in charge of securing systems.
Thanks to generous financial support from the Greater Washington Partnership Talent Ready Initiative, Startfield was able to provide laptops, technical support, and mentorship for both teams. The teams competed in Rounds 1 and 2 as well as the State Finals. Although there were some technical glitches and steep learning curves they had to overcome in a short period of time, the teams felt they learned a lot from the experience and expressed interest in competing again next year.
Startfield is actively exploring additional funding and partnership opportunities to continue activities in the new year and expand access to our programs to other Baltimore City public schools.
