Benefits
Cyber security experts, particularly those with multidisciplinary backgrounds, are increasingly in demand as the nation’s reliance on cyber infrastructures continues to grow. Through ICSSP, students can receive hands-on education from some of the nation’s top academic experts in this critical area and join a field with many opportunities for highly skilled professionals.
Financial Benefits of the Scholarship:
- Cost of tuition (either in-state or out-of-state).
- Generous stipend each semester to support your educational expenses. (Grad students receive a larger stipend than undergrads.)
- Funds to help with the cost of textbooks, a laptop, and other equipment needed to be successful in the program.
- Professional development funds to participate in ICSSP activities (relevant workshops, training opportunities, and research activities).
- Travel funds to participate in relevant conferences and the annual in-person job fair, which all participants are required to attend.
Additional Benefits of the Scholarship:
- Expertise in a growing professional field.
- Research experience with security experts.
- A lifelong network of colleagues in the field of cyber security.
- Attend weekly ICSSP seminar with other scholarship recipients and hear from government officials, program alumni, and other security experts.
- Internships and mentoring in a federal government and/or national laboratory setting. Students who receive a 2- or 3-year scholarship are required to participate in the internship program after the first year during the summer term. Students will receive assistance in finding an internship position.
- Guidance from an ITI/ICSSP faculty advisor, identified through the ICSSP program, who can act as a mentor on the information assurance field. Students and advisors will periodically have one-on-one meetings. (The ICSSP faculty advisors will not replace students’ regular academic advisors, but will offer supplementary guidance.)
- Access to state-of-the-art security labs.
- Opportunities to compete in regional and national cyber security competitions.
- Assistance with career placement in a federal agency or laboratory upon graduating. To help with this, the SFS program offers two job fair opportunities per year. One is a virtual job fair held online every Fall. The other is an in-person job fair held in January in Washington DC that is attended by numerous agencies that wish to recruit students; the SFS program covers students’ travel costs to attend.