– About Me –

My Story

Starting college, I was not sure how I was going to be successful and find a career after I graduate. I have many family members who work in this field that helped guide me in the right direction. In my freshman year, I got my first part-time job working as a Network & IoT Specialist for ODU. This was a great stepping stone to learning basic IT, troubleshooting methods, and having great supervisors that wanted me to reach the next level. Later on, I was informed on cybersecurity certifications and how they can help contribute to getting a full-time job. While still working part-time, I was able to gain 4 certifications in my sophomore year: (ISC2) SSCP, Cisco CCNA, CompTIA Security+, and CompTIA CySA+. I learned and believe that having these certifications were just checking boxes and experience is just as important.

After achieving these certs, I was able to land an internship for Chesapeake Regional Healthcare where I would be handling the vulnerability management side while learning the importance of PHI and HIPAA compliance. During the summer, I wanted to expand my knowledge and was selected for the DoD VICEROY Research Project where I helped lead my team in the research of AI and Adversarial Machine Learning. Last November, during my Junior year, I felt that I had enough experience plus my certifications to find a full-time job and decided to apply to a position at ODU. I was able to successfully complete the interview process and received the offer to become the Information Systems Security Technician for ODU Research Security. I value all of the people that I met along the way, my supervisors, co-workers, and family because they saw the potential that I had and gave me their full support. I am blessed to be in the position I am in now and am motivated to keep learning and expanding my knowledge in the field.