Alamance Community College (ACC) is among an elite group of two-year institutions to award Cybersecurity students with scholarships totaling $4,970 through a grant from The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) with funding from Microsoft.

 

The grant, “CyberSkills for All: Community Colleges Lead the Way,” is an initiative to support U.S. community colleges in educating a workforce knowledgeable in the many cyber skills required across business and industry. Further goals of the alliance are to build a community of practice among colleges, to share and strengthen subject matter expertise, and to increase enrollment in cybersecurity programs. 

 

AACC received numerous applications from member community colleges across the country, and each application was carefully reviewed by a team of experts in workforce and economic development and by key Microsoft staff.

 

“With so many high-quality applications, it was a true honor for Alamance Community College to be selected among the top 14 to receive funding,” said Debra McCusker, Department Head and Program Manager of Center of Excellence-Cyber.

 

Funding from the grant allows the College to organize outreach efforts, participate in professional development opportunities, and to honor high-performing students with scholarships.

 

ACC's 14 student scholarship recipients are Oriana Alexander, Cameron Allen, Kimberly Baptiste, Madi Ceesay, Hilary Ferguson, Paul Gomez, Donald Hernandez-Escalante, Samantha James, Ashley Mitchell, Cristian Morales, John Sprague, Anthony Thedford, Lexus Wagoner, and Christopher Wrenn.

 

Alamance Community College’s associate degree program in Information Technology-Systems Security (Cybersecurity) was designated a National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE-CD) program of study in 2020. ACC earned the designation based on its robust degree program and the close alignment of curricula components to specific cybersecurity-related knowledge units.

 

For more information about ACC’s Information Technology-Systems Security associate degree program, contact Debra McCusker at 336-506-4261; or go to www.alamancecc.edu and type “Cyber” in the home page search bar.