For quick details about artifacts, skills, and work during my time at ODU and their respective skills, please refer to the below. Other artifacts can be found on the header page with links to more of my documented work.
Personal growth and decision making is my first major artifact or leadership skill related theme and is most noticed in my Resume, Content analysis and Reflective essay. They demonstrate my individual learning and growth through my input from learned topics that dealt with my collaborative adjustment soft skills, experience artifacts, and further goal oriented or accomplishments like my induction into the NSLS.
My pursuit of knowledge is my next major artifact under my teamworking and collaborative skills and it is most noticeable when referring to my CYSE 300, CYSE 201S, CYSE 425, and RMI 412 classes. These classes demonstrate my pursuit of knowledge by showcasing my hard skills of learning through coding software like python, my learning and adaptability soft skills when it comes to new topics, and my determination skill set of striving for completion.
This leaves my ethical decision making artifact theme that resides under my morality and critical thinking skills that is most notable in my English 231C, CYSE 406, CYSE 280, and IDS 300W level classes. All four of these classes represent my ethical decision making in different ways. CYSE 406 showcases my hard skills of effective writing when informing about data protection and privacy. CYSE 280 acknowledges my hard skill of researching based on the forms of vulnerabilities that were discussed which I found to best. English 231C and IDS 300 are further instances of my ethical decision making under the skill of researching when choosing a topic to discuss about with interdisciplinary themes.
About Me
To whom it may concern my name is Spencer Foulk. I am currently attending Old Dominion University for a Major in Cybersecurity, minor in risk management, and future geotechnical degree in engineering. I was born in Chesapeake and raised in Virginia beach. I like sports sneakers, collared shirts, and hoodies. I plan to intern for the cyber clinic here on campus to expand my cyber related growth and outreach. Later, I plan to travel down to different parts of Virginia to further expand my skills and knowledge within Cybersecurity.
I have many hobbies including shoe design, video games, repair, and building design with art being my favorite. I have two twin brothers and a sister that presses me relentlessly now that I’m enrolled in college, but enough about them and a bit more about my start behind it all.
During the initial stages of my life back in 2004, life was calm and ongoing as new inventions and productions of technology were in the making of the background while I was still learning how to take my first steps. At home, my lifestyle was easy-going yet disciplined from the start from parents who wanted to see a good-willed or a well-mannered individual soon after I was fully grown up. Cybersecurity was nowhere near a thought in my mind as I knew nothing of the concept and its overall process, however it would not be long until I first became influenced. Cybersecurity came to be my favored profession of study due to my life’s actions and chronologically inclined dates of action like my father’s influence, technology inclined cousins, my trial and error with technology, and my personal favorite which must be my first computer at the age of six where I first experienced it all.
At the age of six, I was allowed to use a computer that my dad managed to fix up, who will be mentioned in the future, which grasped my curiosity from the first day that it was bought. The first thing that I did was use it for games that my cousins, friends, and other relatives had talked to me about that I was curious about. Games like pinball, solitaire, and my personal favorite Purble Place were a few that I could not let my attention off from for the longest time. This proved to be good will and a fun experience for me until I made the mistake of opening an internet explorer for the first time.
After becoming accustomed to the flow of things on the laptop, I decided that I wanted to expand my horizons and engage in what the internet had to offer through various sites like YouTube for entertainment, cool math games for fun learning, and others. After visiting a couple of said sites, my curiosity and enjoyment was nothing but heightened after experiencing much of the online ecosystem that I had been unable to access for the longest of time. It was this curiosity that led to a downfall when error struck.
There was a game that I was interested in purchasing, however the specifications of my machine were dated and unreliable when it came to running the game smoothly if not at all. I turned to YouTube which at the time was a decent source of information that had recently started. I came across multiple sites of helpful information on google which said that an upgrade was the best solution for the problem, but I was adamant on playing today which led to me finding a specific YouTube video about downloading ram. Going into this I was thinking surely this wouldn’t be a scam of some sort although this was built up from desperation and a lack of experience with technology and computers. I ended up following the tutorial and it led to the game being unavailable to play on top of multiple random home screen popups and an unusable interface. I was devastated at the ease of which something so small could lead into something as drastic as that. It wasn’t until I asked my dad about it that I realized that I should have just gone to him from the beginning as he was my second influence and introduction.
My dad was my second influence as a current and well appreciated worker at the Army Corp of Engineers stationed down in Norfolk. My father deals with Civil engineering and the creation of bridges, watersheds, and landscaping for future projects. He was always technology inclined which I drew and learned from him to inspire my knowledge as it has developed into today’s standards. He was also a wood worker, painter, excelled cook, and etc. as he had many professions that are beside the point. With all the interests that he had culminated over his life, it gave me a slew of possible choices to choose from for a future career path that I might consider on top of the considerations from my mother, personal interests, and cousins who we will get to in the future. My father is a huge inspiration in my life and has always managed to express new and interesting concepts into my mind that I didn’t think to be possible. He is my second reason for my interest while also being my influence into technology from his many hobbies. While my dad was a huge help it was still a bit of a trouble for me to pick out a specific career choice which led me to ask others that were around my age at the time.
Since my family contains the youngest children under my parents, aunts, and uncles, I am often behind the curve on knowledge as the younger cousin. This often leads to me questioning or rather gaining experience from my older cousins. This lead me to one cousin whose significant other was in the profession that I was interested in. He told me all about his job and his work with networking systems, VPN’s, coding, and more that he would do daily as a network engineer and specialist. He was my third reason as we would chat every time we met at events like Thanksgiving and birthday parties when I had the opportunity to meet him. He was a great friend and informer, and I would also consider him as the reason for my understanding of interdisciplinary concepts and what not since he taught me how to intertwine and relate information for a common ground ideal. While he was a profound influence, it would be my consultation with personal technology that influenced my career choice.
Around the later parts of high school, I was more than technologically inclined with the ability to build my own computers and fix up random technology and items that family members would often ask me to. Most of the efforts were not easy but many of them were simple to understand. As this continued, I found an appreciation for trial and error as the satisfaction of restoration was a guilty pleasure of mine. Being able to come to a solution on an idea technology related project always brought joy to my eyes. It was a simple problem and solution tactic that would grow on me and later develop into my current major.
I would not be in the position that I am today if it was not for the culmination of events that led to it. The realization of instant threat that can be influenced on a space for learning, the influence of my father and his teachings throughout my life, the guidance and teachings from my cousin’s partner, and the trial and error that I experienced when working on machinery was the main reason for my pursuance of Cybersecurity as a major. I enjoy the tactics and effort that goes into the field that is necessary to protect a global connection of internet networking sources and would not have it any other way.
McAdams, D. P. (2001). The Psychology of Life Stories. Review of General Psychology, 5(2),