U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand visited Binghamton University on Monday, highlighting a Department of Defense scholarship program, which offers college tuition to students who join the country’s cybersecurity workforce.
The Cyber Service Academy scholarship program provides a year of college tuition for every year applicants work either with the Department of Defense or the Intelligence Community.
Students studying cybersecurity, cyber operations, digital and multimedia forensics, and computer crime investigations are eligible for the scholarship.
Gillibrand, who created the program, said there are close to 30,000 unfilled cybersecurity positions at the Department of Defense. She said part of the problem is that students who want to go into the cybersecurity field often have to take out significant loans to pay for their education.
“So if you offer free college for undergraduate, two-year degree, advanced degree, PhD, a lot more students can do the work they want to do, first,” Gillibrand said. “And second, they know that they have a pipeline to a really high level job that they’ll have unlimited earning capacity after they finish their public service.”
Gillibrand said another obstacle to filling cybersecurity vacancies in government is the fact that private sector companies pay far more.
“An entry-level government service job might be $70,000 or $100,000 or even $125,000, but you’re not comparing to the hundreds of thousands you can get in the private sector,” Gillibrand said. “So the benefit of having your college be paid for can make up for that difference.”
The program accepts 1,000 applicants a year. The scholarship includes tuition, books and fees, a laptop, and a stipend for room and board.
Binghamton University is one of 24 institutions in New York whose students qualify for the program, because of a federal designation as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity.
