CANTON — Superintendent Jill Rossetti and Lead Computer Information System Instructor Resheeda Bowman are pleased to announce that six Blue Hills Regional Technical School seniors received their Cisco Cybersecurity Essentials Certification.
Seniors Robert Conley (Milton), Juno Hoch (Randolph), Ademar Parada (Randolph), Ethan Stewart (Braintree), Luke Summers (Avon) and Sophia Whitley (Dedham) received the Cisco Cybersecurity Essentials Certificate upon their completion of Cisco’s Net Academy Cyber Security Course. The course, which is part of Cisco’s platform of industry-known certifications ranging from entry-level to super-elite certification, teaches students about the world of cybersecurity and how to detect and respond to cyber threats.
“With the course completed and a Cisco certification under these students’ belts, they are well-prepared to pursue a secondary-education program in cybersecurity,” Bowman said.
The students received their Cybersecurity Essentials Certificate following the year-long Net Academy Cyber Security Course that included numerous exams and a final overall exam that required them to score with a 75% or above.
This course has assisted Blue Hills Computer Information System students with preparing for the Air Force Associates CyberPatriot Competition, the world’s largest cybersecurity competition for K-12 students. During Blue Hills Regional’s first year participating in this competition they had three teams earn bronze medals, and in the second year two teams earned silver medals.
In addition to assisting students in the competition, the Cisco Cybersecurity Essentials certification also assists students in bypassing many college and universities’ prerequisites for cybersecurity placement programs, which allows them to move ahead in pursuing their cybersecurity degree.
Bowman and fellow Computer Information System Instructor Donald Conaghan have been trained to deliver the Cisco Net Academy Cyber Security curriculum to students. To ensure accessibility for all students, Blue Hills Regional covers the costs of Cisco certifications.
“At Blue Hills Regional, we pride ourselves on offering state-of-the-art career technical education opportunities for our students that prepare them for their futures,” Superintendent Rossetti said. “With certifications such as Cisco, our students are armed with tangible proof of their competency that sets them ahead of others.”
###