My Story: Galen Cole

Education Background

I chose this major because in the City of Virginia Beach there was this program called the Advanced Technology Center through Tidewater Community College (kind of like vocational school but for STEM-related fields) for high school students. Through this I was able to take two year-long college courses for network administration and cybersecurity. This afforded me the opportunity to participate in multiple cyber competitions, such as CyberPatriot, RUSecure, and FBLA for management information systems. In addition, vouchers to obtain my CompTIA Network+ and Security+ certifications. Applying to this program was kind of like a shot in the dark, but after participating I fell in love with the field. I always loved games and computers, but I never thought to this extent.

Overall, school is going well, I plan to graduate a semester early and stay for my masters as ODU provides a linked masters program. Through this I’m taking graduate classes as an undergraduate, planning to only take a year for my masters. I also have gotten my CySA+ and PenTest+ certifications and by the end of this semester I plan to complete the chain with the SecurityX. Recently, I've also been considering getting the CompTIA Cloud+ certification to broaden my expertise in cloud security. All of the CompTIA certifications are vendor-neutral, which I like because it gives me a good foundation to build upon.

"I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing." - Socrates
Life is about constantly learning. There is nothing more important than knowledge, experience, and understanding. It also would mean nothing if I didn't constantly retrospect and evaluate what I have learned to ensure I truly understand it either through challenges provided by others or self-imposed.