San Antonio is one of the fastest-growing cities in the country, and outside of Washington, D.C., the San Antonio area employs more cybersecurity specialists than anywhere else in the United States. A whopping 40 cybersecurity companies are headquartered in the area, and numerous local factors point to excellent growth potential in this sector. To keep up with the expected surge in job openings for skilled professionals, the tech industry will need an abundance of talented individuals in the near future.

North East ISD (NEISD) saw an opportunity to meet this need by investing in an internal program and an impressive new facility that would attract interested students. This program allows students to learn necessary skills to earn key certifications and successfully position themselves for careers throughout the local tech industry—more specifically, the massive field of cybersecurity. This groundbreaking venture designed to connect students with bright futures in the local tech industry has come to be known as the Institute of CyberSecurity and Innovation (iCSI).

Building the Program

The NEISD cybersecurity program originated as a single pathway program at Theodore Roosevelt High School, a magnet school, with anywhere between 50 and 60 students. It was first known as the Engineering and Technologies Academy (ETA), and the success of that program led to a conversation about the growing cybersecurity industry in San Antonio.

The potential for growth in the job market and the industry’s needs in the San Antonio area inspired NEISD to seize an opportunity to expand the program in both size and scope, making it available to more students in the district.

For Josh Beck, lead instructor of iCSI, this program has been a long time in the making. “I started off as an English teacher 20 years ago, and then I taught myself programming,” Beck explains. “I later took a job at a magnet school teaching programming. That led to a 20-year IT experiment that resulted in this program.”

Early in his career, Beck looked to incorporate technology into his classroom. He always enjoyed the process of playing with the technologies that underlie end-user experience and cobbling together old computers to set up servers to work through bugs. He taught himself programming languages and put together what may well have been the first Linux computer lab at the K-12 level in Texas. His idea for the program progressed one class and one certification at a time.

Beck even studied with his students. “For the first few years, any student who was studying for a professional certification was doing it right along with me,” he says. “In several cases, I would go with the students to take the tests. Every year, I set a goal to get one more cert and bring the knowledge and skills I acquire into the classroom.”

In 2013, he was hired to teach IT and programming for the ETA magnet program at Roosevelt High School, and it was here that Beck began to connect the cybersecurity skills his students were learning to industry needs in the local area. With so many tech jobs available and a lack of skilled individuals to fill them, Beck envisioned a pipeline that could benefit both his students and his community.

iCSI launched at the beginning of the 2021-22 school year with a new facility, but it was built on an existing program with a successful track record. While its predecessor was located in one corner of the district, the new facility’s central location allows for maximum participation from all seven of the district’s high schools.

In High Demand

iCSI was designed to bring students interested in programming and cybersecurity together with industry professionals to provide unprecedented networking and mentoring opportunities. Cybersecurity professionals regularly visit the North East ISD Cybersecurity Center to discuss jobs they are looking to fill, teach labs, give presentations, and provide career awareness to the students.

Cybersecurity is a very diverse field, so the program—based in computer science—branches out into coding, programming, and networking as well. Each of these disciplines works together to defend computers, servers, mobile devices, electronic systems, networks, and databases from malicious attacks. As a result, the basic curriculum incorporates bits of each while allowing students to explore the certifications and career paths that interest them as they advance through the program.

“Every device connected to the internet has an operating system that is vulnerable to cybersecurity threats,” Beck says. “We teach the students how bad guys—hackers—try to manipulate these systems and exploit misconfigurations of the networks.”

At iCSI, students learn to thwart these efforts with hands-on experience working with industry-standard hardware, software, and platforms. The first year is designed to be a boot camp for basic skills where students learn everything from interactive web design to creating virtual operating systems. Remarkably, no prior knowledge or experience is necessary because the instructors use differentiation to adapt the curriculum to students’ current knowledge and experience while allowing students at different levels to learn at their own pace.

This unique program allows students from the district’s seven high schools to attend iCSI two class periods each day while remaining a student of their home campus. A variety of certification options are available for students as they progress through the program—all of which are paid for by the district through federal grants.

“We made sure to add an industry certification for every school year the students are in the program,” says Justin Missildine, NEISD senior director of career and technical education. “And we feel the certifications we are providing are very valuable for entry-level jobs in industry.”

As the new iCSI program is phased in, its predecessor, the ETA program, is being phased out. After the district initially surveyed students to query their interests, cybersecurity ranked rather low. But once some students were exposed to the new curriculum and learned about the growing need for trained professionals in the cybersecurity industry, the number of enrollment applications was double the amount they could actually serve the first year.

This year, 390 students have applied for only 170 spots. With the influx of applications, a lottery system has been created to eliminate any barriers for entry and make it completely equitable for every interested student.

A High-tech Wonderland

The NEISD Cybersecurity Center is designed to look and feel like a real-life security operations center (SOC). Computers are set up in groups so students can work in teams. The network lab is outfitted with Cisco routers and switches so students get the opportunity to work hands-on with real networking equipment.

“Every bit of hardware is state-of-the-art, and the enterprise virtualization infrastructure is way beyond anything you would ever see anywhere else at the K-12 level,” Beck says.

There are ciphers (encrypted and encoded messages) hidden in art all around the building that require a range of cyber skills to decode. As students progress through the program, they learn concepts and strategies that allow them to translate the ciphers into the hidden messages their instructors have left for them to discover.

The new facility was once a neighborhood HEB and then Walmart before NEISD renovated it into the state-of-the-art cybersecurity institute you see today. From the outside of the building, the structure blends neatly into the surrounding shopping center, but once you step inside, you are transported to a high-tech wonderland that rivals anything you have seen on a Hollywood set. Everything from the murals in the hallways to the lighting in the classrooms provides an extraordinary experience for students and an atmosphere where they can successfully explore the curriculum and engage with instructors.

“We are looking to add additional classrooms and a large competition area or arena, where students can compete in cybersecurity, e-sports, and robotics competitions to serve as a community technology center,” Missildine says. “We are also looking to add a collaborative center where industry folks can come and work directly with our students.”

iCSI currently has only two instructors, but additional qualified instructors—somewhere between six and eight total—will be needed as the program expands. NEISD hopes to attract candidates from industry as well as traditional educators with an IT skillset as long as they can meet the qualification requirements and have a passion for teaching.

The Next Generation 

The future of cybersecurity is looking bright for NEISD students. The combination of available jobs, access to technology, networking opportunities, and an engaging curriculum of this caliber add up to a program that is already achieving amazing levels of success. The incredible rate of students returning to the program after their first year has exceeded all expectations at more than 92%.

Missildine attributes much of the program’s success to the learning environment they have created for the students: “Our ultimate goal was to provide real-world opportunities to mirror what an actual working environment might look like. The SOC we have created here is meant to closely resemble the SOCs used in industry. An iCSI partner even made the statement that our SOC ‘resembles the FBI SOC.’”

NEISD hopes the program and its success will inspire districts across the state and country to do something similar for their students. The iCSI model is the product of a team effort and many years of refinement, and it is unique in its ability to provide students with the practical, hands-on training they could only otherwise receive in the field.

“A decade ago, IT training in high schools was just not yet a thing,” Beck says. “Over the course of several years, we learned what worked and what didn’t, and our involvement and success in Cyberpatriot competitions opened the doors for younger students to get interested in the field.”

With the help of these Cyberpatriot competitions, NEISD has piqued the interest of local middle schools and helped them create their own Cyberpatriot teams. The skills required to excel in contests like the National Cyber Defense competition—the definitive high-school level cybersecurity competition—are closely aligned to the skills and certifications taught in the program.

“Other schools run cybersecurity programs with pathways for certification, but they don’t have a standalone, dedicated facility for this purpose, especially not to the level that we have established here,” Missildine explains.

Some of the middle school Cyberpatriot competitions are hosted at the new facility to introduce those students into the program. They have also put together field trips for local elementary schools to get them exposed at a younger age and broaden their reach. In the summertime, iCSI instructors plan to run coding camps for middle school students and host an orientation for the next year’s freshman class.

NEISD also provides equipment to middle schools so they can participate in Cyberpatriot competitions as well. Beck trains the middle school coaches and provides curriculum and lessons to engage the younger students. They now support upward of 75 teams—almost triple what they had last year!

Looking Forward

The program has received very positive feedback from the students because of all the hands-on experience and engagement they are getting in the lab and through competitions. The program also offers students a clear pathway to multiple certifications and career options.

“We see a range of graduate options for students to leverage the skills they learn in the program,” Beck says. “Some go straight into industry, others head to a community college, some attend a university—even MIT—and some join the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.”

In addition, students don’t need to attend the program for all four years to benefit from it. In order to graduate from high school with the cybersecurity endorsement, students only need to attend two years of the program. With this certification, students can look to earn top-secret government clearances and walk right into internships after high school.

“The University of Texas at San Antonio has a strong post-secondary program, and industry is growing here in San Antonio, and that has contributed to us creating this one-of-a-kind program,” Missildine says. “We preach the lifelong learner mindset to all of our students, and career development options are written into all of our TEKS.”

Thanks in large part to the vision of a forward-thinking educator, iCSI has become a reality for North East ISD and an inspiration to other districts around the state. The program’s ability to simultaneously benefit students and fill a critical need in the local community speaks volumes on the value of collaboration between public education and private industry. But perhaps more importantly, it is the commitment to their students’ passion for learning that has made the Institute of CyberSecurity and Innovation such a remarkable success.