With a tight-knit community of students, staff and faculty, the cyber operations and resilience program provides a top-level learning experience. It was one of the reasons why Jacorious Smith chose the program. “I would recommend this program because of the community,” Smith said. “It’s tight-knit, and the people here genuinely care about your success.”
Video Transcript
I would recommend this program because of the community. I believe it’s really tight knit. There’s a lot of people here that really care about you succeeding.
Cyber operations and resilience
My name is Jacorious Smith, but most people call me Jay. I graduated from Boise State, spring 2024, and I currently work for Ada County as a cybersecurity engineer.
I would recommend students take the cyber operations and resilience degree because it teaches you a lot of the core components of cybersecurity and information technology in general.
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All the things that someone should know when they’re going into the workforce and working for an organization that’s putting their trust in that person to maintain their cybersecurity.
What really motivated me after I transitioned out of the military to get a cybersecurity degree, is I’ve always had an interest in computers. And then with just being in the military, the whole aspect of protecting and making sure people are safe. I wanted to do that same thing, but with in a different field. And so that’s what drove me to cybersecurity.
The CORe program does a great job with having resources and hands on tools for you to be familiar with before you actually work with those tools on the job.
Gan Hands-On Experience
It’s not just theory. You’re actually getting hands-on experience with a lot of things. Even within the CORe program, there’s a discord where we’re able to chat with other students based on what class and bounce ideas and just, like, be able to help each other out.
So within the CORe program, they offer courses to get a certification or if you grab the certification on your own, you can take it for credit.
And it was great because those tests, a lot of that stuff, I was able to recall that I learned from the actual CORe program and taking courses. And so it definitely helped me get those certifications, employers really like that.
And The CORe program has been great with sending out internship opportunities that’s local to the area, which has really helped me significantly and a couple of those emails are the internships that I landed.
The Cyberdome actually paid for my security plus certification. And, so I was able to do real life cyber security analyst work and also get industry specific certification along with it. So that definitely helped advance me.
This stuff not only applies within the workplace, you can take this stuff home, teach it to your kids, and just for you to be safer.
When it comes to cybersecurity, there’s people out there trying to get your information every day. And so it’s important to know this stuff, whether it’s at work or you’re at home.
From the faculty to the students you are in the courses with, they are there to help you and be a great support system. And it’s honestly something I’ve only really experienced being in the military, just having that tight family unit and caring about each other’s success.