What's Cool at School: Fordham Prep's Cybersecurity Club

Cybersecurity is one of the most in-demand tech jobs around, and one Bronx high school is providing a unique opportunity to their students to learn more about it.
Major companies report security breaches on a regular basis

Fordham Prep's Cybersecurity Club, formed just three months ago, includes high school students that compete in the Air Force's CyberPatriot Program against schools across the nation.
The program gives students just six hours to solve real-world situations.

"They have these kind of security holes, which can be as small as users that shouldn't be there, misconfigured settings and as big as backdoors into the system you have to find and kill,” saysTim de Ganon, Fordham Prep freshman.

The students don't just enjoy cybersecurity, they're really good at it. At a competition this past weekend with over 2,000 teams competing, both teams from Fordham Prep finished in the top five of all of New York state.

"I don't think anyone thought that we would be where we are now, because this is our first try and now that's we're top five in the state, it's pretty incredible,” says senior Nicholas Matranga.

Assistant Principal for Academics and Student Life Chad Broussard has been working with the team from the beginning and sees the skills they're picking up.

"Just building their confidence for themselves, but then also collaborating, being on a team, because we do know, in the workforce, you're going to be working with people. So, this is creating the opportunity for them to build those soft skills and communicate,” says Broussard.

The club also work toward a potential career in a quickly growing field.

"Everybody needs somebody for cybersecurity, because everything's of value to a hacker so you need someone to defend,” says de Ganon.
The team hopes to reach the nationals in Baltimore this April.