Huron Girls Cybersecurity Team places 12th in nation, 1st in Michigan

By Jo Mathis/AAPS District News Editor

A group of girls from the Huron Cybersecurity Club competed recently in the Girls Go CyberStart 2020 National Championships. 

The Huron Cybersecurity Club includes top row: Jessie Schwalb, Jason Nolan, Beini Lan, Lena Trang, Veda Srinivas. Bottom Row: Hyunsuk Oh, Sasha Lee, Anastasia Papageorgiou, Lynne Trang

The Girls Go CyberStart National Championship was held virtually on May 20 and 21 and the results were impressive:

  • Ann Arbor Huron placed 12th in the nation, and first in Michigan.
  • Veda Srinivas, Jessie Schwalb, Lynne Trang, and Lena Trang competed on the Ann Arbor Huron National Championship Team
  • The following students participated in the qualifying rounds of the competition: Anastasia Papageorgiou, Beini Lan, Eleanor Lin, Jennifer Shim, Jessica Schwalb, Lena Trang, Lynne Trang, Mihika Thakurta, Sasha Lee, Veda Srinivas.

Huron Business, Technology, and Cybersecurity Teacher Jonathan Cook is the advisor of the Business Professionals of America, E2 & Cybersecurity Clubs.

“These brilliant, creative, and determined students have been studying and preparing for this competition for most of the school year,” says Cook. “With all of the challenges, stress, and missed opportunities they’ve faced this spring, it’s been uplifting to see them compete and be so successful in the Girls Go CyberStart National Championships.”

He attributes their success to technical savvy as well as their ingenuity and grit demonstrated during practice and competition solving cybersecurity challenges.

“Many of the challenges often require a lot of trial-and-error, research, and creativity to solve, at which our team has excelled,” says Cook.

The Huron Cybersecurity Club was founded this 2019-2020 school year by Huron junior Veda Srinivas to give students the opportunity to build unique and in-demand cybersecurity skills, while also growing friendships between students with like-minded interests.

“I started the club this year after participating in Girls Go Cyberstart last year because I thought it was a really fun and interesting subject,” says Veda. “Cybersecurity is also a rising career field so it presents a lot of opportunities for members of the club.” 

In addition to the Girls Go CyberStart Competition, Huron qualified two teams in the Top-10 of the Governor’s High School Cyber Challenge held in October at Detroit’s North American International Cyber Summit.

For complete results, click here.

The AAPS District News welcomes thoughtful comments, questions and feedback.

All comments will be screened and moderated.

In order for your comment to be approved:

  • You must use your full name
  • You must not use  profane or offensive language
  • Your comment must be on topic and relevant to the story

Please note: any comment that appears to be spam or attacks an individual will not be approved.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*


This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.