Cherokee Schools Named CyberStart America District Of Distinction

CHEROKEE COUNTY, GA — The Cherokee County School District has been named a national District of Distinction in a competition to prepare students for cybersecurity careers.

The school district earned the designation from CyberStart America, a national organization established to provide high school students with free access to cybersecurity learning resources written and developed by industry professionals.

The organization’s goal is to encourage students to pursue careers in the high-demand field by offering opportunities to explore and enhance their abilities and skills and compete for scholarships. Gov. Brian Kemp, the Georgia Department of Education, Georgia Cyber Center, Georgia Tech and University of North Georgia are among the Georgia program partners and supporters.

“Cybersecurity offers our students an outstanding career opportunity, with 500,000 currently unfilled jobs in the field and many more expected to develop,” Superintendent Brian Hightower said in a news release. “This school year, we launched cybersecurity as our newest Career Pathway program, and we will continue to look for excellent opportunities, like CyberStart America, to engage even more students in exploring this exciting career choice.”

As one of Georgia’s 10 Districts of Distinction, Cherokee County has been awarded a $5,000 Cyber Opportunity School prize for cyber training and teacher stipends for Woodstock High School, and an additional six prizes of $500 will be awarded to district students who score the most CyberStart America points by April 27.

Students do not need to be enrolled in Cherokee Schools’ cybersecurity or computer science programs to use the online resources or participate in the competition. Students can sign up online to participate.