Prince Kelly has been intrigued by technology since he was about four years old, and so when the chance arose to be part of the CyberPatriot Team of the Northeast Lauderdale High School Navy Junior ROTC unit, he jumped at it.

“Everything that is likely to come in the future is going to be computerized, and I wanted to get a head start on that,” said Kelly, a junior at the high school, and part of the NJROTC.

Kelly is the team’s leader, or cadet commander. For the second year, he and his teachers explained, a team from the school has entered the Air Force Association’s CyberPatriot National Youth Cyber Defense Competition. The team competed in a preliminary stage round this week, members explained, and they reported outstanding results. But the competition has just begun.

Students compete online — and ultimately, they explained, they’ll face the challenge of preserving the cybersecurity for a fictional small company. The procedure is also outlined at www.uscyberpatriot.org.

“Mr. Prince Kelly here is, as far as I’m concerned, a computer genius,” said Kent Malone, naval science instructor at the high school and Senior Chief Petty Officer, retired from the U.S. Navy. Kelly said Malone supplied the idea for the students to compete.

Malone described the way such projects help students to hone technical skills as they learn about key aspects of the world.

“It gives young men and women the opportunity to pursue a career in technology, and also it shows them how vulnerable the security system and how vulnerable the electronic is in the world today,” he said.

Malone also noted the way he wanted to see technology developed at schools, and how he’d like to see it continue to enhance communication with students’ families, as well.

For Kelly, computer skills and family interaction have never been far apart.

“I feel like I was influenced by my sister,” she said. “When I was very young, I always sat in her lap while she was on a computer. I felt like that exposure caught my interest at a very early age. I started getting on a computer when I was about 4 (years old).”

Kelly said he was learning the fundamentals of typing back then, along with a painting program that fascinated him.

For the contest, Kelly is working with five other students on the high school’s “A” team.

One of those students, Aabha Mantri, a freshman, already has experience with computers. She said she did an “hour of code” regularly at a previous school in Pennsylvania, where she used to live — and her activities with CyberPatriot, she said, can help her to push that knowledge along.

“I like technology, but I’ve always thought that I could be better at computers and coding,” she said.

Breanna Lanier, also a freshman, described the intense focus that computer work demanded.

Lanier said she hoped to become a lawyer, and Mantri a pediatrician.

As for Kelly, he’s searching for that chosen profession.

“That’s my biggest issue,” he said with a slight chuckle. “I cannot home in on what I want to do.”

But he did cite the characteristics he’s seeking: He said that his career would be futuristic, that it would involve engineering and that it would be creative and inventive.

Students William Cline, Mykia Lawson and Alyssa Espino are also part of the school’s “A” team in the competition.

Dexter Deen is also a naval science instructor at Northeast Lauderdale High School, and he’s a Master Chief Petty Officer, retired from the U.S. Navy. He’s acting as coach for the students on the school’s CyberPatriot team.

“They’re on the cutting edge,” Deen said. “To me, this is very exciting … Anything that I can help them with, I’m going to try my best to make available.”