Christian Nieto

13 September 2025

Depending on who you ask my story may be seen as unconventional with a lot of shifts and turns, but then again are any of us really conventional? I grew up the third oldest of seven, five girls with only one other brother and yes that’s a lot of estrogen to be surrounded by. However, now my two older sisters are out and about living their lives in a different country, with a different way of life unlike the one here in the US. Meanwhile, for as long as I’ve known, I’ve taken on the role as the emergency parent, the golden goose child, and the first of many titles, soon to include First Generation College Graduate to go with every academic achievement to this point. 

I was born in Atlanta, Georgia; Clayton County to be exact. For as long as I can remember, my earliest memories have always included me doing everything on my own. From learning a new language on my own, translating legal documents as well as not just mine, but my family’s doctors appointments etc; and let me tell you it’s a very patient oriented interaction when a physician is asking a five-year-old what’s going on. Especially when English is their second language and the mom is just playing charades, somehow we got the job done. Nevertheless, I have always been the forefront for my family, that’s who I was molded and encouraged to be. 

I wouldn’t want it any other way though, it’s helped me be who I am today and who I will continue to be in the future. Being the first to do a lot of things and breaking previous family chains isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Especially when it comes with a lot of labels, a lot of pressure, and a lot of isolation. As a proud child of an immigrant upbringing, I believe I was always destined for greatness. I believe that I was always meant to be more, I believe that I was and forever will be the standard and the pride of the family. That’s a journey that I will take over and over again.

Being a young Hispanic child in Atlanta comes with a lot of exterior factors. I was always surrounded by drugs, I was always surrounded by gangs, and a lot of violence. I’ve never lived in a stable environment. My mom who I consider to be my superwoman always insured that we had some type of roof above our heads, whether it was living in an apartment with way too many people inside of it, or living in a rugged and barely legal trailer park on the side of a slope, where it seemed that even just the slightest gust of wind would topple the trailer over. 

Regardless, the chaos has always been connected to home. The more scary part of everything to me at least, was the outside world. More specifically my world, growing up I didn’t really have that many friends. I was always more focused on ensuring my siblings we’re taking care of. My mom used to work a full-time job at a food packaging company, so supervision for us wasn’t always guaranteed. As soon as we all got home from school, we went straight home and locked the home up like it was a fortress. My mom tried the babysitter route, but with money being so tight and people not being very dependable, it was better off this way. 

I’ve never really had a problem with being too mature for my age, it really only affected my relationships with others. All the kids in the neighborhood used to always pick on me because I was the smallest. I never had real decent clothes, and I was always too goody two shoes for the group. I brushed it off for the most part, pretty much because I knew my circumstances were beyond my control but I was grateful. Everything would change once I moved to Virginia, my second home. 

Virginia is where I found purpose, I found a new beginning, a fresh start. Having your life up rooted and moving to a completely different state many miles away from everything you know is a crazy concept within itself. My new environment in Virginia was way safer than down south. Being already academically driven, I embraced and thrived in my academics, which created momentum for other areas in my life. Finally doing sports such as soccer and football year round with amazing success gave me the confidence and validation for the hard work I’ve put forth. I found myself in a college prep course similar to the IB program. This program was called AVID. (Advancement Via Individual Development) finding myself lucky enough to be nominated for this program. Let alone considered changed my whole life. For the first time I had an environment that believed in me, my focus for the first time was scholarly driven instead of simply being survival and getting through day by day. 

My teachers and mentors Mr. Matheny, Dr.Parsons, and Miss Benner changed my life in ways that they don’t even fully know. Coming out of high school, I had no idea what I wanted to go to school for. I had no idea what to even make of the idea of me going to college. Having all this time invested into me, I didn’t wanna let them down. I had a conversation with Dr.Parsons, whom I had a very tight bond with, that skyrocketed my life since 2020. I went up to her and told her I had no idea about any of this, and she suggested “ you should try cybersecurity”. My first reaction was “What’s that? Like the movies?” she went furthermore into detail about it, mainly emphasizing the growth of it considering AI and everything was on the rise And boy oh boy did I have no idea what I just signed up for. 

Early on, I didn’t have much luck in college early on. Given that Covid was 2020, school got put on the back burner for me as my mom ended up getting sick for months. And as her being a diabetic, that was very scary. That pushed me to want more stability in my life and had me set forth and seek that missing piece. That piece for me ended up being the United States Air Force. I enlisted as a reservist, hoping to have that extra resource towards school as it’s very expensive and also allow me the leeway to have more security in life. Thus it did. I ended up securing a job in the cyber field, some know it as Data Operations, others know it as Knowledge Management. This position alone gave me access to inside knowledge of the beast that is cyber security and who better to be surrounded by than people and trusted by their country to do the job.

It was here with the Air Force reserves where I was able to see the day-to-day trials and tribulations of cyber security which only added to my appeal towards cybersecurity and gave me the reinforcement I needed for my position in this special field. Not only that, I also gained a  great respect for cyber security as a whole, as well as a greater understanding for what it takes to be in this specific environment. It being combined with the Air Force only guaranteed and reestablished my discipline and interests, which only grows each and every day. 

Here at ODU I’ve gained a pretty intensive perspective into cybersecurity, such as different coding languages, topics within cybersecurity, as well as understanding that there is a great broadness of the topic itself. However it is a topic that only strengthens and grows at a rapid pace. Given that I’ve only scratched the surface with Sec+ and other military and ODU training, the sky is the limit for what I can achieve in this great space. And to think all of this started by a spark , given to me by somebody who believed in me endlessly. That is a debt I plan on paying forward and not disappointing on. That is my why, my entry and my story