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Students to Compete in Girls Go Cyberstart National Championship

During the winter, students in Mrs. Toth’s tech classes gained firsthand experience with the challenges of cybersecurity through the program Girls Go Cyberstart (GGCS), an interactive online program composed of digital challenges.

Sponsored by the Digital Divas, a team of Mount students registered for the GGCS competition that tested their skills in solving cybersecurity puzzles. The competition also served as an exercise to determine if students had an interest in and aptitude for cybersecurity. To qualify, students had to complete at least six of the initial challenges. Out of 51 Mount students working on the puzzles, 28 passed through to the next (Game) level. 

At the Game level of competition, students had to pass multiple challenges with the goal of scoring enough points to be eligible for the National Championship. Of the Mount players, Grace Rowello ’20 and Paige Vercio ’21 spearheaded the challenge and led the Mount team.

On May 6, Mrs. Toth was informed that the team met the required level of mastery and was invited to the National Championship. Representing the Mount in the National Challenge will be Grace Rowello ’20, Paige Vercio ’21, Brynn Lintner ’21, and Maureen Phelan ’23. The challenge will be held virtually this Wednesday and Thursday.

In Pennsylvania, 476 girls representing 30 schools registered to play the initial assessment round in February and March. The Mount represented more than 10% of all those players, and more than 11% of those who qualified for the Game level. 

Through Girls Go CyberStart, students can explore exciting career opportunities, join the global cybersecurity community, and learn the techniques they need to keep our country safe online. In the program’s exercises, girls take on the role of security agent to gather information, crack codes, find security flaws and dissect a cyber criminal’s digital trail to develop skills in security disciplines.  No prior experience is required, as the program gradually builds a student's knowledge base, introducing them to exciting topics like cryptography, web vulnerabilities, Python, Linux and forensics.

 

  • academics
  • tech