Our Youth

FHA Thinks Computer Science and Cyber Security

Pictured are Fontbonne students who participated in the Cyber Security Program and Mark Surdyka, Fontbonne’s director of technology.
Pictured are Fontbonne students who participated in the Cyber Security Program and Mark Surdyka, Fontbonne’s director of technology.

This summer, five students from Fontbonne Hall Academy, Bay Ridge, participated in the NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering Introduction to Computer Science and Cyber Security Summer Program for High School Women. They were selected through a competitive application process.

The program included lectures, hands-on projects and day trips to Google and Facebook to prepare the young women to participate in the nationwide Cyber Security Awareness Week High School Cyber Forensics Challenge, hosted annually by the NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering.

During the program, the students had the opportunity to meet women working in the computer science and cyber security fields and to consider those fields as possible career options.

“The program opened my eyes to some exciting real-world applications of the work we were doing in the classroom,” said Fontbonne senior Josette Tugander.

“Cyber security has not been seen as a traditional career option for women, and we are so happy to work with NYU Polytechnic to change that perception,” said Mary Ann Spicijaric, Fontbonne principal. “Girls interested in STEM have amazing futures waiting for them.”

The two-week, tuition-free program was sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the National Security Agency and the School of Engineering.