School’s cybersecurity program also graduates first class
From staff reports
The Technical College of the Lowcountry recently made the top 100 “power rankings” for its performance in a national cybersecurity competition which included teams from community colleges and four-year institutions from across the country.
TCL’s team was ranked No. 75 out of the 476 colleges and universities that participated in the National Cyber League’s (NCL) “ethical hacking competition” – or the legal practice of using hacker techniques to test systems for vulnerabilities.
“This is a tremendous accomplishment for our students who worked very hard and put in a lot of time and effort,” said Angel Kern, TCL’s Cybersecurity Program Director who went on to say the ranking also spoke to the quality of TCL’s programs and dedication of its faculty and staff.
TCL’s team, made up of more than 40 students, went head to head with students from around the country in the months-long, online competition which culminated in mid-April with the teams’ portion of the event. Students performed real-world cybersecurity tasks such as identifying hackers from forensic data, performing industry tests and audits, recovering from ransomware attacks and other challenges.
The rankings were based on the student’s individual performance, the team’s performance and the aggregate individual performance of its students.
Warren Parker, chairman and executive director for the South Coast Cyber Center, commended TCL for its ranking.
“This is a high honor for the program and is due to the hard work and leadership of all those involved in the competition and building the cybersecurity effort at TCL. Well done,” he said.
Some of the same students who participated in the competition were also part of TCL’s first class of cybersecurity graduates. TCL’s Cybersecurity Associate Degree program, featuring 63-credit hours of coursework, started in 2022.
The 2024 graduates were: Andrea Albridge, Samuel Alvey, Connor Anderson, Ambriance Lamar, John Lyons, Aimee Mentzer, Dorian Phillips, Raiven Venning and Kyle Wetter.
For more information on TCL’s cybersecurity program visit www.tcl.edu/cybersecurity.
