Hello!

My name is Arrington Goode. Recently, I am a senior at Old Dominion University who is currently studying Cybersecurity. I was born and raised in Chesapeake, Virginia. College has always been an important part of my journey. This ePortfolio is a small glimpse into what I have to offer. Throughout my academic career, I have collected a multiple artifacts that showcase my talents and work.

Artifacts

Throughout this website, you will find different artifacts that represent different areas of interests. The three artifacts titled Cyber War Paper, Write Up-Hacking Humans, and Parasite Essay all help to show my growth over the past couple of years – from a writing standpoint. These three works focus on three different classes that I took throughout college. One of them is an essay that I recently completed. The next is one I did a few months ago. The last is one that I did a year ago. Each one showcases my journey throughout school and how my writing has developed. All three of these works fall under the “‘technical skills” section of my portfolio.

Next, after you look through those, I have an accomplishments section. In here I have my AWS, Amazon web services, certification. Along with that I have my resume which is up to date. Lastly, I have included a Feature Story that I had to write after a study abroad trip to London, England. Each one of these showcase different accomplishments throughout my life and how they have shaped me. My AWS certification is the very first certification I received. Hopefully, in the future, I will be a recipient of more certifications. The next accomplishment is my resume. The resume details all of the work experience, academic experience, and volunteering experience that I have. It is the one place to see my full career in its entirety. Lastly, I added my final study abroad essay. During my trip to London, we had to create an interdisciplinary essay that connected ourselves to something we experienced overseas. In my essay, I spoke about my love for classical music and how that has shaped me. All three of these works fall under the “goals and accomplishments” section of my portfolio.

Lastly, the three artifacts within the portfolio would be under the research skills tab. In this section, there are three papers that demonstrate my ability to research and come to a conclusion. All three papers are from one singular class. Policy Analysis 1, Policy Analysis 2, and Policy Analysis 3 are three different papers that heavily focus on research. In each one, I was tasked to craft a paper that demonstrated my research abilities and my abilities to craft a great paper. Each paper is structured so that it accurately represents the topic at hand. Over the course of my academic career, I have delve deeper into research and crafted many papers. Each one better than the last. In order to properly research, I go through a series of steps. First, I like to look through any sort of rubric. Once that is done, I start to outline and look for peer reviewed sources. During this process, I will constantly check back with the rubric to ensure the paper meets the qualifications. Finally, I can start to craft the actual paper. Each source is put into the paper and then I connect it to my overall message. Research is a very important skill to have. The ability to look for authentic sources and use them properly is imperative to have even outside of the classroom.

Overall Academic Career

Each one of the nine artifacts presented showcase an important part of my academic career. Going from high school to college is a giant step that many take. High school, especially my high school Indian River, helped to properly prepare me for the many assignments that I would be given. Perhaps the biggest adjustment was going from senior year in high school to freshman year in college. High school often has strict guidelines in the way it operates. College teaches you to think outside of the box. Teachers often tell students to create and structure their papers however they see fit. Moreover, in my own experience this has taught me to think about my research in a new and interesting way. However, these lessons do not just apply to the classroom. College gives me many interdisciplinary skills. These skills are the cornerstone to every successful person. Interdisciplinary skills is the connection between each skill that you learn. Connecting skills like research and technical skills help to propel you further in whatever career you choose.

In college, I took a number of different classes that ultimately prepared for the job market. One example of this is the class “Cyber War.” This is perhaps one of my favorite classes I have ever taken. When dealing with the cybersecurity field, there is a lot of variety. The law and policy side is one in which I find myself attracted to. It is interesting to study and discuss which laws and policies impact us and how they need to be amended. Technology spaces are always being updated and changed. The laws that surround them need to be changed as well. Law is something that can be studied by any major or area of interest. While my main focus is cybersecurity, I would also like to dive deeper into the law side. In the future, I plan to study both and find a career that intertwines them. Another example of a class that helped to prepare me for my future is a class called, “Cybersecurity Ethics.” Along with the previous class that was mentioned, this one also prepared me in ways I did not even consider. Learning ethics and how to understand different worldviews was eye-opening. Ethics went hand in hand with my law class. Both helped me to not only prepare for my cybersecurity career but for any career in the technological space.

Cybersecurity and The Future

Once I was at Old Dominion University, I started my journey in the Computer Science major. However, I quickly realized that it was not exactly what I wanted to do. In my Sophomore year, the Cybersecurity major called my name. It was relatively in the same field but also felt more in tune with what I personally wanted to do. Cybersecurity allowed me to problem solve while also having an avenue to explore other field in the cyberspace. Cybersecurity is very lucrative. There are many different routes that one can take when they go into the field. Moreover, I decided I wanted to be some sort of ethical hacker. Ethical hacking involves hacking into systems with permission. Once I understood my goal, it was easy to work backwards and take the right classes. Now, I have taken all of the required classes and I am ready to move into higher education. My plan for right now is to complete a Masters on the subject while also completing more certifications. Once those are done, I hope to start my first career. It will probably be something low level but I will slowly climb the ladder with time. My experiences throughout college have shaped me into becoming a better learner and listener. With these skills, I can hopefully start my career off with a good start!