Kristen Tumacder, a 2015 Sacred Hearts Academy graduate, has been prospering in the cybersecurity world.

Tumacder was recently elected as a member of Rochester Institute of Technology’s (RIT) National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC). This is a national competition between college students and professionals from the security industry.

Tumacder is the only female of the 12-member team representing the finest cybersecurity students at RIT.

“I really like being on the team because I get to help everyone out by contributing my Windows defensive skills,” she said. “As a team, we’re really close and we’re almost like family.”

Through her dedication to cybersecurity, Tumacder has been awarded the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) Cyber Ops Global Scholarship. The scholarship was designed to encourage young people to consider a cybersecurity profession. According to the scholarship, the number of cyber attacks has been steadily increasing, while the number of industry professionals has been on the decline.

Cisco will offer Tumacder free training and mentoring for when she takes two certification exams in June. If she passes these two tests, she will be certified by Cisco.

In addition, Tumacder accepted a summer internship as a network security intern at The MITRE Corporation. MITRE is a multi-billion dollar nonprofit corporation that operates under federally-funded research; it is also a development center that directly assists the U.S government with scientific research and analysis, development and acquisitions, and systems engineering and integration.

“I really like networking, so I hope I can learn more about networking than from what I just learn in class,” she said. “I hope to get a hands-on experience with this.”

Even after graduating from the Academy, Tumacder finds time to give back by committing to help the school’s CyberPatriot and Robotics teams.

“I have been coming back since I graduated,” she said.