This is my professional E-portfolio for anyone who would like to look at my projects that I posted to show my experience working with different coding languages and operating systems. I will show my hands on knowledge working with Java, Linux, and policy analysis as shown by my class assignments and home projects.
Personal Narrative Essay
Carter Hendrick
Old Dominion University
IDS493: Electronic Portfolio Project
Professor Carin E. Andrews
12 September 2025
Narrative Essay
Cybersecurity is important to me. At first, I only chose to learn it because I thought I could make enough money to eventually figure out what I really wanted to do. Now that I have been learning cybersecurity for five years, and practicing for six months, I understand much better how important cybersecurity is. cybersecurity is something I have become more passionate about as I have gotten older and learned more about it. I now understand how necessary it is to keep oneself safe online and how many companies and governments do not take cybersecurity seriously. Information is now the most important thing that needs to protected due to how bad actors can take advantage of it. It is now more important than ever to understand how to defend your information and I want to keep myself and others safe.
Starting Cyber in High school
Originally I was not planning to learn cybersecurity, instead I was going down the path to learn engineering. As I got to my junior year of high school I realized I did not want to do engineering and instead wanted to do something more related to information technology. This eventually lead me to taking a cybersecurity class that was offered at my high school. This class is where I first learned about cybersecurity and also where I first fell in love with the idea of being an ethical hacker or pen tester. My senior year of high school was really important because it is when I solidified my idea of getting a degree in cybersecurity and going to Old Dominion University. Once I knew what I wanted to do, I tried my best to engage in different projects that interested me, which is how I started to also learn and start working with coding and electronics. My cybersecurity teacher even let me participate in a cyber capture the flag challenge, which is a challenge where you try to use different methods of manipulations on specific websites or applications to break through security measures and retrieve the challenge flag usually stylized as $FLAG$.
Cybersecurity in College
I started college at Old Dominion University in 2022. The first year of my education was not very exciting, although I did enjoy a few of my general education classes. I came to the realization of why general education is so important. In order to get better at thinking dynamically and, by extension, think critically, you need to be exposed to a lot of different information of different varieties. I used to dislike the idea of general education, but seeing myself grow and become more aware of myself helped me realize that they are necessary in order to think more in depth in general. Specifically, humanities classes like literature and philosophy helped me realize these things. Once I realized this, my mindset started to change, I started thinking more about what I actually needed to learn and what skills are important to what I want to do. This is unfortunately something I am still working on, but it is only because there is simply so much information about technology and how it is used. My second year of college was my dive into legitimate cybersecurity information. I learned a lot of the basic things about different protocol layer models and cybersecurity best practices. I also learned more programming with python which has allowed me to gain a decent framework of how certain similar coding languages work. I only know how to use python and java, but it is easier to pick up other coding languages now that I have worked with them.
My junior year of college was much more focused on technical skills related to ethical hacking and pen testing. This was a lot of fun and led me to learning more about social engineering, actual attack vectors, and methods of attack. Using Kali Linux, I was able to complete labs that had me creating payloads that would be delivered via a website and allow me to take remote control of a user’s computer. I also had a Windows security class with a professor who helped me a lot. Malik Gladden was a great help in keeping me on track to pursue pen testing and, at the very least, try to get an offensive security job. This was an important turning point for me because this is when I knew I wanted to pursue cybersecurity and technology as a passion, not just as another job option.
My Internship Experience
I started an internship with the Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic during November 2024 as an IT specialist, this will come to be the most important thing I have done for myself. During the first project I worked on I did a lot of configuring and troubleshooting computers, from this I learned about networking, cabling, BIOS configurations, and other skills that very quickly became useful including using Linux. Eventually I would get an email from my supervisor asking me if I wanted to move to a more cyber-based project. I agreed and was quickly transferred over to the project I work with now. This experience has been vital to my understanding of cyber and what it really means. I was able to get my CompTIA security+ certification and I continue to work on backing up, patching, and troubleshooting systems while being surrounded by my coworkers who are all wellsprings of knowledge. From my coworkers alone, I have been able to learn more than I ever have in a very short amount of time. This has helped me narrow down what I feel I should focus on learning in my own time. Because of this, I developed my own Linux sandbox I use for ethical hacking practice by doing capture the flag challenges and attempting bug bounties that companies put online for people to try and find vulnerabilities in the websites and report them for money. I used to feel much more impostor syndrome about the position I was in, but now I have worked to be where I am and I feel like I am actually making progress towards my goal of being a pen tester.
Conclusion
I have put a large portion of my time into learning about cybersecurity, at least a fourth of my entire life, and from my experience, I have found that we as a people need to prioritize our information security. It is difficult to tell what information is true and what is not. It is getting more difficult to understand the truth, which is also making it more difficult to defend our information. The direction our world is going is pointing towards a sort of cyberpunk era, where it will be a constant fight to keep yourself safe online more than it already is. It is truly scary what individuals can do to steal your information; companies and entire governments have even more tools at their disposal. That is why I want to learn more and be able to help keep people safe. If I can equip myself with that knowledge, then I will say that my time spent learning cyber has been well worth it.