Penn State Berks will hold a Cyber Security Discovery Day for Reading School District middle students in the Penn State Educational Partnership Program (PEPP) on Tuesday, May 6, 2014 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Michael Hoehl, Chief Information Security Officer of Godiva Chocolatier, will be the guest speaker.
Cyber Security Discovery Day aims to expose students to the career pathways in the emerging field of information security and to encourage students? motivation for and their interest and participation in the information security workforce. Cyber Security Discovery Day has been regularly offered once a semester since 2010. The program involves a day-long field trip to the Penn State Berks. Participating students perform a series of hands-on activities in the Collaborative Virtual Computer Laboratory (CVCLAB), learn about career opportunities, and interact with college students.
These workshops are partially supported by the National Science Foundation and The Howard O. and Jean Beaver Endowment for Community Service. Dr. Abdullah Konak, Professor of Information Sciences and Technology, and Dr. Sadan Kulturel-Konak, Professor of Management Information Systems and Coordinator of the Entrepreneurship Minor, are faculty advisers and workshop co-coordinators.
The Penn State Educational Partnership Program (PEPP) is an early-intervention collaboration between Penn State Berks and the Reading School District. The mission of the program is to enhance academic preparedness and motivation levels in its Reading School District participants to pursue higher education.
PEPP also recruits and trains students from Penn State Berks, most of whom are Childhood and Early Education majors, to act as PEPP Learning Assistants (PLAs). In this role, the Penn State Berks students serve as tutors and mentors, and are positive role models who lead and inspire the PEPP students. The PLAs must present a lesson plan in addition to tutoring, mentoring, helping with homework, planning and coordinating PEPP student ideas and projects, and learning about classroom management in a diverse urban school environment.
For more information, contact Guadalupe Kasper, PEPP Program Coordinator, at 610-396-6272 or via e-mail at [email protected].