IWTC Corry Station Officer Guest Speaker for GenCyber Program

They filed into a sunlit conference room and begin to take their seats. Their morning, filled with hands-on activities about password cracking and code breaking. A group of girls between 6th and 8th grades from five regional Girl Scouts of America troops learned the building blocks of cybersecurity.

Lt. Alicia Oberholtzer, cryptologic warfare officer instructor at Information Warfare Training Command (IWTC) Corry Station attended as a guest speaker for the GenCyber Experience, a program aimed at inspiring and educating children and young adults about careers in the cyber field, at the University of West Florida’s (UWF) Center for Cybersecurity on Nov. 4, 2023.

Guy Garrett, program director for GenCyber and associate director of Technology and Training at the Center for Cybersecurity said, “It’s important to get young girls excited about this field. These young girls see these teams of woman and think, ‘Hey, I could be like them in a couple of years.’”

The workshop partnered GenCyber and the Cybersecurity Ambassadors with the UWF chapters of the Society of Women Engineers and Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS), a global community of women focused on recruitment, retention and advancement of women in cybersecurity.

Garrett explained that the gender gap in the cyber workforce needs to be filled with new forward thinking perspectives, and he focused on the need to educate girls about opportunities to get into a good career field and to do something that matters. This concept ties in well with the Girl Scouts’ emphasis on: how does this help others, and what does this inspire you to be.

“It’s important for school-age girls to understand that in careers like engineering, science, computer engineering, and cybersecurity there is a low representation of women” said Garrett. “These are absolutely great opportunities. They just don’t know about it.”

He said the reason they approach girls at this age group is to introduce them to the concept early on so they can revisit the idea in high school. The idea proved true when he shifted the original target group and saw a 38 percent increase in female campers returning for advance workshops.
Anna Wheeler, strategic initiatives lead at Leidos, spoke to the group about the importance of women taking up space in this career field and making their voice heard when they are seated at the table.

“You are in the room because they don’t want you to be quiet,” said Wheeler. “You’re in the room because someone sees something in you and values your opinion and outlook. Speak up!”