The CIO Institute created the National Cyber Scholarship Foundation in 2020 to award college scholarships of $2,500 to at least 600 U.S. high school students and stipends to college students to recognize their talent and encourage them to become part of the next generation of cybersecurity professionals.
The Foundation launched a national talent search in order to:
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Identify aptitude
Uncover hidden talents in students who may not otherwise consider the cybersecurity profession. -
Nurture potential
Provide free intensive immersion academies to fill in the gaps in student technology backgrounds and prepare them for advanced studies in cyber security. -
Empower excellence
Reward the top performers with financial incentives to support future cybersecurity studies. Three pathways are available to qualify for the scholarships. To encourage participation, all three events are open to all students, from complete novices to self-styled computer geeks.
CyberStart America allows students to solve hundreds of realistic cybersecurity challenges in an immersive gamified learning platform that was created by the SANS Institute.
Cyber Patriot is a cyber defense competition that puts high school and middle school students in charge of securing virtual networks. It was created by the Air Force Association.
picoCTF is a hacking contest for middle and high school students, created by Carnegie Mellon University.