Baltimore, Md. - The Air Force Association's (AFA) CyberPatriot Program announced last week the winners of its CyberPatriot IX National Youth Cyber Defense Competition. It also recognized one competitor in particular – high school senior Leon Gaulin – who is just the fifth recipient of the Cyber All American Award.
The Cyber All American designation is awarded to students who have played a role in advancing their teams to the CyberPatriot National Finals Competition in each of their high school years. In any given season fewer than one percent of CyberPatriot teams advance to the finals. For any student to be part of a team that does so for each of his or her high school years is particularly rare.
With a successful CyberPatriot career accomplished, Leon plans to attend Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester, Mass., to pursue an Engineering associate's degree, then through an articulation agreement transfer to Worcester Polytechnic Institute to obtain a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering.
“Leon has been such an inspirational member of our school's CyberPatriot team and program,” said Coach, First Sergeant Paul Jornet, US Marine Corps, (Ret). “Throughout his four high school years Leon has helped to train so many students in the fundamentals of safe and ethical cyber behavior. Leon has assisted with the instruction of two cyber summer camps for middle school students and three cyber STEM camps for high school students. Commitment to community is a trademark of Leon's, as he currently serves our school as the Student Representative to the School Committee.”
Prior Cyber All American awardees include:
Connor Quick, 2015, Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School (Fitchburg, MA)
Joshua Klosterman, 2015, Big Sioux Composite Squadron (Brookings, SD)
Carlin Idle, 2015, Colorado Springs Cadet Squadron (Colorado Springs, CO)
Victor Griswold, 2016, Colorado Springs Cadet Squadron (Colorado Springs, CO)
The CyberPatriot IX competition season began in October 2016 with more than 4,400 teams registered. After four months of rigorous online challenges, the top teams met in Baltimore, Md., to compete for the title of National Champion. Leon and his team took home third place honors in the All Service Division.
CyberPatriot, an education initiative established by the Air Force Association and presented by the Northrop Grumman Foundation, is a one-of-a-kind cyber defense competition designed to inspire students toward futures in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Other program sponsors include Cyber Diamond sponsors AT&T Federal and the AT&T Foundation, Cisco, Microsoft, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense; Cyber Gold sponsors Facebook, Riverside Research, Splunk, and Symantec; and Cyber Silver sponsors Air Force Reserve, Air Force STEM, American Military University, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Leidos, and University of Maryland University College.
To learn more about CyberPatriot’s programs and initiatives, and to sign up for CyberPatriot X, please visit www.uscyberpatriot.org .
The Air Force Association is a non-profit, independent, professional military and aerospace education association. Our mission is to promote a dominant United States Air Force and a strong national defense, and to honor Airmen and our Air Force Heritage.
Attachments:
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/Attachm...6828024d30
McKinnon Pearse Air Force Association 7032475847 mpearse@afa.org
