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.
For more information, contact ACCESS Program Director, Lindsay Linsky, Ph.D.
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:
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.
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.
The ACCESS program consists of two phases:
Students in Cyber Explorer Schools compete for prizes across all 10 Cyber Explorer Schools.
Timeline:
Main ACCESS Schools:
Cyber Explorer Schools:
School Prizes
To support teachers and schools throughout this process, the ACCESS program provides the following:
Fall Support:
Spring Support:
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:
All ACCESS Schools must meet the following criteria:
To be successful with the ACCESS program, schools must have strong support at three levels:
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.
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.