Immaculate's CyberPatriots Team Reaches Gold Tier In State Competition

**News Release Submitted by Immaculate High School**

Immaculate High School’s CyberPatriots team made it to the gold tier in the Connecticut Regional National Youth Cyber Defense Competition this year. The school’s team has won the state competition four times – 2020, 2017, 2016 and 2015.

“We are incredibly proud of our team’s success and it's a direct result of Immaculate’s robust commitment to STEM – science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” said Dr. John Pitrelli, CyberPatriots’ faculty moderator. “One of the great parts of this experience is veteran-member mentorship to new students so our team is always growing and getting better.”

CyberPatriots is a program created by the Air Force Association and its National Youth Cyber Defense Competition puts teams of high school and middle school students in the position of newly hired IT professionals tasked with finding and fixing cybersecurity vulnerabilities in virtual operating systems. The competition is designed to inspire K-12 students toward careers in cybersecurity or other science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines critical to our nation’s future.

Aiden Doolabh ‘23 (Danbury) was the lead CyberPatriots mentor throughout the season. The team also included Andrew Brenner ‘23 (Danbury), Anna Kopec ‘23 (Bethel), Bradley Darlucio ‘24 (Danbury), Charles Roman ‘24 (Danbury) and Melena Ventresca ‘25 (Sandy Hook).