Addressing Cyber Career Equity for Student Success (ACCESS)

The Addressing Cyber Career Equity for Student Success (ACCESS) Program is a prize program to help underrepresented students recognize hidden cyber talents. Funded by the National Cyber Scholarship Foundation (NCSF), ACCESS promotes cybersecurity careers by providing incentives to play CyberStart America (CSA) and support for Title 1 schools.

Two things get in the way of cyber learning:

Cybersecurity is a new topic to schools. Anything “new” can seem intimidating to students at first. Also, students often think only “techie” types or only people who look a certain way can do cyber.

Those factors coupled with other documented barriers often prevent underrepresented students from trying out cybersecurity in school and pursuing cyber careers later. However, the cyber industry recognizes that diversity is crucial:

A wide variety of cyber problems needs a wide variety of cyber people to solve them.

Got Questions?

For more information, contact ACCESS Program Director, Lindsay Linsky, Ph.D.

How CyberStart + ACCESS Prizes Reveal Hesitant Student Cyber Talent

CyberStart America is a fully gamified learning experience where students solve fun challenges and earn points while learning cybersecurity. Instead of targeting the “techie” types of kids, CyberStart programmers designed the game to targets students with these characteristics:

Curious: Fascinated with new challenges or new technologies.
Continuous: Students that are tenacious – most technology problems don’t have obvious answers.
Committed: They love learning, and their learning is self-motivated and often self-paced.
Convergent: Students that are effective problem-solvers.

Those barriers still get in the way of trying cyber games. That’s why prizes are key. When a cash prize is on the line, students are more likely to give something new a try, especially if the learning is part of a fun game.

ACCESS: From Cyber-Hesitant to Cyber-Hired

Students that reach 20,000 points qualify to apply for the National Cyber Scholarship Foundation’s tuition waiver to a SANS Institute course (SEC275), which ends with the opportunity to test for an industry-level certificate. In other words, top performing students can go from "zero to employable" in the cyber workforce in about one year!

Therefore, the mission of the ACCESS program is to take Title 1 students from cyber-hesitant to cyber-hired by supporting Title 1 schools and offering incentives to help them reach 20,000 points in CyberStart America, making them eligible for free cyber training and GIAC certificate.

Due to a new partnership with Inspiredu, ACCESS students who perform well in the game will receive a refurbished laptop in the fall. This will help them get farther in the game and equip them for the online SANS course over the summer.

2023 – 2024 ACCESS Objectives:

Provide support for Title 1 schools and teachers to incorporate CyberStart America in the classroom
Provide incentives for students to play CSA while supporting their tech needs with Inspiredu laptops
Help at least 100 students qualify for the NCSF scholarship

ACCESS Program Phases

The ACCESS program consists of two phases:

Fall: Preliminary ACCESS schools play CyberStart from October to December. Then, ACCESS leaders review schools’ CSA registration, participation, qualifier data, and overall school support for the initiative to place schools into one of two tiers: Cyber Explorer ACCESS and Main ACCESS Schools.
Spring: Students in Main ACCESS Schools compete for the full list of prizes available at each school.

Students in Cyber Explorer Schools compete for prizes across all 10 Cyber Explorer Schools.

Timeline:

March 30 - May 15: Schools apply to participate in ACCESS
June – September 2023: Teachers plan and prepare for Fall rollout & play CSA to learn the game
October – December 2023: Preliminary ACCESS Phase (all 20 schools)
November: Rollout of Inspiredu laptops (150 devices total)
December: Decisions about 2 ACCESS tiers announced
January – April 2024: Schools in Two-Tiers - Main ACCESS & Cyber Explorer ACCESS
May 2024: Prizes awarded

What are the ACCESS Prizes?

Main ACCESS Schools:

1^st place: $250 gift card (1 for each school)
2^nd place: $150 gift card (1 for each school)
3^rd place: $75 gift card (1 for each school)

Cyber Explorer Schools:

Across all 10 Cyber Explorer Schools, students have a chance to win one of three $100 gift cards.

School Prizes

The teacher within the 20 schools that encourages the most students to the qualifier level gets $500.
Top 1 public school with highest number of qualifiers gets $2000 to advance cyber programming or teacher cyber training.

ACCESS Supports for Teachers

To support teachers and schools throughout this process, the ACCESS program provides the following:

20 high schools receive $150 for a “pizza and games” recruitment event
20 CSA licenses for ACCESS teachers to learn the game and plan over the summer

Fall Support:

All 20 preliminary teachers receive $150 stipends for their time

Spring Support:

Main ACCESS Teachers receive $300 stipends (10 teachers)
Cyber Explorer teachers receive $100 stipends (10 teachers)

What are the Program Expectations?

ACCESS Teacher Expectations:

ACCESS Teachers should be school employees who believe in the CyberStart America mission and have the time to dedicate to this program including: play CyberStart over the summer to get a feel for the game, plan out a recruitment/participation event, attend monthly meetings, communicate issues/concerns with the Director, remain engaged throughout the program, and be the main point of contact for the Inspiredu Laptop Distribution at your school.

ACCESS School/District Expectations:

Districts must "whitelist" the CSA game url for students to participate
Allow the ACCESS teacher to hold either a Fall recruiting event or a Spring participation (with grant assistance).
Permit ACCESS teachers to distribute Inspiredu Laptops to the eligible students* and will follow the guidelines provided by Inspiredu.
- *Not all CyberStart players at the school will receive Inspiredu laptops. ACCESS teachers will help to find eligible students, follow the distribution steps, and communicate with parents.

How Do Schools Apply?

Eligibility:

All ACCESS Schools must meet the following criteria:

Have not been a Main ACCESS school in the past
Title 1 according to Federal definition
Have strong support for the initiative

To be successful with the ACCESS program, schools must have strong support at three levels:

Strong district level support (for IT permissions, etc.)
Support and enthusiasm from school principal (for recruitment purposes)
At least one enthusiastic teacher from any subject who is willing to champion CyberStart America

It is important to note that ACCESS Teachers do not have to be existing CS or cyber teachers. Since the game does the teaching, the ACCESS teacher at a school can be a career counselor, JROTC instructor, or other teacher who is interested in getting involved.

Application Process

To become an ACCESS school for 2023-2024, a school system employee (CTAE director, teacher, principal, etc.) must apply and provide letters of support across all three levels.

Following the application process, twenty (20) schools will be selected for the program based on support and teacher enthusiasm for the program.

Application Form