After completing the COVA CCI working for the City of Suffolk, I learned a lot about myself. The first thing I learned is how natural of a leader I am and my ability to foster an environment where everyone can participate, generate, and grow without a feeling of confinement. I was honestly a bit surprised at becoming the unexpressed overall project lead over both teams A and B. It was not my goal to take over so much, but I saw the needs and offered my thoughts to the team members and was well received by all. I attribute this ability to my many years of teaching and interpersonal experience I already had as a martial arts instructor and Physical Therapist Assistant. To that point, I would add that our success in delivering an assessment for the City of Suffolk came from having a clear and singular goal and end vision.

 I was also glad to get the practical experience working with Tenable and performing risk assessments for the City of Suffolk. This was a valuable experience and confirmation of my academic and technical knowledge in a real-world environment with potentially serious consequences. I can say that I took this opportunity very seriously and with great pride to perform these actions because they really did matter. Knowing that the City of Suffolk has a newly growing cyber program meant that my team and I could not afford to give careless recommendations.

The ability to look at a problem from an executive level and provide recommendations based on complexity, timing, and significance of impact was the true highlight of this whole experience. This is an ability I can take wherever I go in the cyber security field and continue to foster and leverage for greater opportunities.

Thank you, Old Dominion University, COVA CCI, and the City of Suffolk.