Security News > 2020 > October > Professor creates cybersecurity camp to inspire girls to choose STEM careers
Because as we know, women in the STEM and particularly the cybersecurity fields, are very, very low, statistics are less than 2%. SEE: 10 STEM projects to try out at home.
The intent of this camp is to do a few things: one, to raise awareness of cybersecurity; two, to engage students in cybersecurity; and three, it's also to lessen the gap in cybersecurity for women and minorities.
Karen Roby: You're very passionate about inspiring young women to follow in your footsteps and blaze their own trails when it comes to cybersecurity and in IT, because there just aren't enough girls and minorities in the field.
I started saying, "Well, I need to move. I need to go further down the pipeline or go back up in the pipeline, shall we say, to the high school level. Let me deal with high school students before they've made these decisions. Before precursor to college, let me talk to these young women and see if I can make them more aware, and I can equip them with more knowledge, and I can encourage them, and I can inspire them and engage them to possibly consider pursuing cybersecurity and computer science as viable careers."
One of the things that we cultivate in my cybersecurity camp is, I have a mixed camp, a heterogeneous camp of young girls and young boys.