Hi, I’m Kely De Leon. I’m 21, Guatemalan, and I’m from Fairfax, Virginia. I’m a cybersecurity major, but what really drives me is the combination of my love for technology and my love for helping people, which is honestly how I ended up in this field. Outside of school, you’ll usually find me at the gym; it helps me clear my head. I also hang out with friends; we like to do fun activities like trying new restaurants. I also love the beach or reading a good romance novel (Colleen Hoover is my favorite author, and It Ends With Us is my favorite book). I also grew up playing soccer, which taught me a lot about discipline and working well with others, something that still shapes how I approach challenges today. I started playing soccer at the age of 11 and stopped playing soccer at the age of 17 after high school; I didn’t continue playing. Being first-generation is a big part of who I am. I’m the only one on my dad’s side currently in college, and the oldest cousin on my mom’s side who’s in college. My second oldest cousin is also in college and often comes to me with questions, which I’m always happy to help with. My parents never finished middle school, so there’s a constant motivation to keep pushing forward, both for them and for my two younger sisters. They’re 14 and 9, who look up to me more than they probably realize. My path to this major wasn’t exactly a straight line. Back in high school, I took a STEM class where we coded a simple game, and I loved it so much that I kept coming back to tinker with it even after the class ended. When I got to ODU, I started undecided, ended up in IT for a while, and quickly realized it wasn’t quite the right fit. Still, I knew I wanted to do something tech-related, since I’ve always been the person my family calls whenever something needs fixing. Between that and talking to students in IT, computer science, and cybersecurity, along with doing my own research, cybersecurity ended up standing out the most. I learned it isn’t just about protecting data; it also has a real psychology side to it, like understanding why people fall for scams in the first place, and that mix of tech and people is exactly what sold me. Right now, I’m working on my cybersecurity degree at Old Dominion University, with a clear goal in mind: after graduation, I plan to join the military, either the Navy or the Air Force, and work in a cybersecurity role there. It feels like the right combination of serving my country and building the technical career I’ve been working toward. Every class and project here feels like another step closer to that goal, and toward becoming someone my sisters and the rest of my family can look up to.