East Central Community College in Decatur is using a $74,646 grant from the National Security Agency and National Science Foundation to offer free GenCyber Camps for girls this summer in four locations.

The grant is part of the National Security Agency’s GenCyber Program 2019. The camps for girls entering grades three through five in fall 2019 are designed to create interest in careers in the computer science industry.

“This grant is important because it allows us the opportunity to get more girls interested in computer science at an earlier age and hopefully that translates into more women in the field of cybersecurity in the future,” Ken Ethridge, computer science instructor at ECCC and Cyber Warriors GenCyber program director, stated in an ECCC news release.

Women earn 57 percent of all undergraduate college degrees, but only 18 percent of all undergraduate degrees in computer and information sciences, according to the National Center for Women in Technology. Women comprise only 11 percent of information security workforce, according to the Center for Cyber Security and Education.

The four East Central camps, which are limited to 20 students each, include:

• June 3-June 7 on the ECCC Campus in Decatur.

• June 10-14 at Choctaw Central High School in Choctaw,

• June 17-21 at Newton Municipal School District in Newton.

• June 24-28 at Louisville School District in Louisville.

Each camp will provide hands-on learning activities that will allow participants to learn cybersecurity vulnerabilities, cybercrime, and how attention to safe online behavior is crucial to their personal safety, according to the news release. Campers will be taught computer programming with Microsoft Surface Go hybrid tablets and laptops; Finch and Sphero robots; Modular Cubelets robots; and Lego Mindstorm EV3 robot kits. Guest speakers will introduce the campers to computing careers, with particular attention to cybersecurity and the importance of continuing education, according to the news release.

Participants will receive a Sphero robot to take home. 

For more information, visit www.eccc.edu/cyberwarriors, or contact Ethridge at kethridge@eccc.edu or 601-635-6232.