With cybersecurity threats such as social engineering, ransomware and malware targeting individuals, corporations and college campuses alike, the need for experienced professionals to combat these hazards is in high demand.
Estimates project almost 3.5 million cybersecurity jobs will be up for grabs around the globe by 2025 and thanks to the high-level efforts of two future NMSU students, they will be sure to have their names pushed to the forefront for many of these positions.
Guillermo Delgado (Chaparral, N.M.) and Kenny Hernandez (Moreno Valley, Calif.) are preparing to represent the state of New Mexico and NMSU on a national stage by competing in the SkillsUSA cybersecurity competition.
Set for Monday-Friday, June 19-23 from the Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC) in Atlanta, Ga., the cybersecurity competition is one part of the SkillsUSA National Leadership & Skills Conference. The event brings together the best and brightest student minds from colleges and universities around the United States for the nation’s largest showcase of skilled trades.
A total of 110 separate contests - 74 in skilled and technical sciences, 19 in leadership development, 11 in occupational-related areas and six in demonstration - will occur in the 3.9-million square foot facility thanks to over $36 million from industry and education investment.
“Initially I was going to take part in a separate competition called the National Cybersecurity League, but someone had mentioned to me that Guillermo was going to be part of SkillsUSA and he needed a partner for the cybersecurity division,” explained Hernandez. “After hearing that, I decided to go in that direction instead. My thinking was, I’d rather work with somebody towards a common goal as opposed to doing something by myself.”
Hernandez developed his passion for cybersecurity at an early age by recognizing and cultivating his interest in technology. With a father who worked as a professor at the Multimedia Language Center at Cal State San Bernardino, Hernandez and his brothers frequently accompanied him to the lab in order to explore and learn more about the computers in the lab.
“Those weekends really spawned my love of computers and, eventually, made me decide to go into cybersecurity,” Hernandez continued. “Once I started learning more about the field, I realized there was a lot more to it than the surface-level aspects. That really made me want to learn even more and grow my skills in the field.
In contrast to Hernandez’s relatively straightforward path into cybersecurity as a student, Delgado took a more circuitous route.
“Originally I was an EMT, but I discovered I didn’t like that particular field. From there, I went back to school and obtained my degree in water technology. I liked the job, but an incident happened where I lost my ability to walk,” Delgado told.
“It took me about a year-and-a-half to be able to walk like I used to and I didn’t know what to do because I was stuck at home for a long while. I decided to go to DACC (Doña Ana Community College) to explore more options and after speaking with a counselor there who recommended I go through the cybersecurity program I decided to pursue that goal.”
In addition to the coursework and classes Delgado and Hernandez immersed themselves in, they both elected to become involved in SkillsUSA in order to make themselves more marketable.
It was by way of SkillsUSA they found themselves connected with NMSU System Chief Privacy Officer and IT Compliance Officer Robert Doyle.
As the New Mexico state chair for the SkillsUSA cybersecurity competition, Doyle has been heavily involved with SkillsUSA for many years and has witnessed the growth of the cybersecurity event firsthand.
“When I went to the national competition three or four years ago, cybersecurity was solely a demonstration,” Doyle remembered. “Now, this is the first year for this discipline to be offered as a competition event. That makes Guillermo and Kenny some of the first students in the nation to have the ability to compete in the event at the national level and distinguish themselves among their peers.”
Needing to distance themselves from the competition at the state level before even thinking of reaching the SkillsUSA national stage, Delgado and Hernandez did so in mid-April. The duo captured a gold rating at the SkillsUSA New Mexico State Leadership and Skills Conference by bettering the efforts of other cybersecurity teams from around the state. The curriculum was put in place at the state level by Doyle.
“What the state chair’s responsibility is, is to develop the curriculum behind what the students are going to be doing, training them and coming the actual skills they have to demonstrate at the state level,” illustrated Doyle. “They recommend you make it as close to the national level as possible, so I had to come up with what they had to demonstrate and at the end of the competition they asked me my opinion and the other judges if they’re [Delgado and Hernandez] gold, silver or bronze. We felt that they had a strong enough aptitude and ability to move up and awarded them a gold rating.”
Not only will Delgado and Hernandez be representing both the state of New Mexico and NMSU on a national competition stage, they will have an exceptional networking opportunity at their fingertips while in A-Town. With nearly 15,000 students, teachers, education leaders and representatives from 650 national corporations, trade associations, businesses and labor unions scheduled to be in attendance, Delgado and Hernandez can make inroads for themselves with public and private sector institutions which will one day seek their expertise as full-time employees.
“I would really like to get my name out there and see how far I can go,” remarked Hernandez.
Echoing his teammate’s desire, Delgado also added, “Being in SkillsUSA has helped me become less reserved and I would like continue to develop my interpersonal skills when we’re in Atlanta.”
Additional funding was invested for Delgado and Hernandez and the other teams to make the trip to Atlanta, taking away any financial responsibility on their respective ends for what will ultimately be an exciting opportunity.
The investment in cybersecurity education made for students at NMSU and its satellite campuses has allowed the state’s sole land-grant institution to enroll, educate and train the professionals of the future.
Seamlessly able to transition from Doña Ana Community College to NMSU, cybersecurity is an Associate’s Degree option available at the former which allows students such as Delgado and Hernandez to matriculate to the latter in the College of Engineering. A heavily-trafficked path for many students, individuals can also go further and obtain a Master’s of Information Technology degree from NMSU.
As mentors, professors and advisors prepare cybersecurity students like Delgado and Hernandez for careers in the field, there is a need to cultivate the specialization of certain areas in a multi-faceted field.
“Cybersecurity is such a diverse field that it has a number of other specialized disciplines within in,” said Doyle. “You don’t want to try to be too broad as you move forward. Instead, we encourage students to pick a strength and then choose sub-strength that blend together. They are very intelligent and are so well-adjusted to the field they will be able to choose and excel at whatever path they wish to pursue.”
By being bullish in regards to the possibilities available for students in the cybersecurity field, NMSU ICT administration knows the successes of Delgado and Hernandez - and the scholars who come after them - are just beginning. In conjunction with extracurricular opportunities like SkillsUSA, NMSU ICT will be launching its own Security Operations Center in the summer of 2023 in order to monitor and identify ongoing cybersecurity threats to the NMSU network.
“New Mexico State University is being very proactive in the field of cybersecurity,” explained NMSU Chief Information Security Officer Carlos Lobato.
“And why not? Why not go ahead and create a Security Operations Center - commonly known as a SOC - to provide our own students with practical experience and expose them to the real cybersecurity threats. Our students are learning through their schooling, but providing them that practical experience through the SOC will be awesome for them. It makes Guillermo, Kenny and students like them highly valuable and potentially they’ll be recruited prior to graduation.”
Currently students at Doña Ana Community College, Hernandez plans to transfer to NMSU ahead of the spring 2024 semester. Delgado, meanwhile, will join his SkillsUSA cybersecurity teammate at NMSU in 2025.
“There are so many different possibilities and endless ways these machines interact with one another,” Hernandez mentioned. “I would advise students who would like to get into this field to learn subnetting, learn how to do binary math and learn to do basic things with your computer that anybody can do. Know what your capabilities are as a user and familiarize yourself with various operating systems.”
Delgado offered a more succinct piece of advice for future students.
“Just go for it. I came from a different background and didn’t know much about computers. Once you start learning about their inner workings and developing your passion, it becomes much easier.”
To follow the journey of Delgado and Hernandez as they compete at the SkillsUSA National Leadership & Skills Conference, individuals can follow SkillsUSA on Facebook (SkillsUSA), Twitter (@SkillsUSA), Instagram (@SkillsUSA) and YouTube (@SkillsUSA). Further details regarding the SkillsUSA National Leadership & Skills Competition, including a full schedule of events, can be also explored by navigating to nlsc.skillsusa.org.