As the “women in STEM” movement rapidly spreads across the globe, Westview’s CyberPatriots club embodies the efforts with their newly formed all-girls cyberpatriots team. Despite most of the four-person group having less than two years of experience with CyberPatriots, through challenging rounds and state awards, they qualified for this year’s National Youth Cyber Defense Competition (CyberPatriot XVI Competition), an annual national competition where students dissect images of computer systems to find vulnerabilities and strengthen its security. Their work paid off as they were able to advance to the semi-finals of the silver division out of 1,500 teams, ultimately placing 85th on Jan. 20.
Anna Isaev (11), who is in her first year participating in CyberPatriots, said the experience was daunting but fulfilling as she got to know the team and competition.
“I was kind of nervous because I didn’t really know what to expect,” Isaev said. “But then while we were doing the competition, I started to feel more confident. I had the other members for [help], and they guided me through what to do.”
Isaev joined the club after Julie Saad (11) urged her to. The two met in Robotics and bonded in another club — Society of Women Engineers and Women in STEM Advocacy (SWENext) — before Isaev joined Saad in taking on CyberPatriots. Having participated in the club since middle school, Saad is the most experienced person on the team. She says she joined Westview’s club after her family’s devices were hacked.
“I started in middle school, then I quit for a year, and then I came back to it because my brother’s iPad was hacked,” Saad said. “I was inspired to [rejoin] CyberPatriots, and now I’m able to defend all my family’s computers and devices.”
As Saad has dedicated more and more time to the club, her fascination with the topic has only grown.
“I find [CyberPatriots] interesting because I really want to learn more about computers, how they work, and how attackers try to [hack into] the computers,” Saad said. “[There are] also files, apps, and parts of the computer that all connect, and [I can] use CyberPatriots skills to defend these computers.”
Member Tanya Mandyam (10) said that the club has helped strengthen her communication skills and connection with the girls.
“As the competition gets higher, the images obviously become harder, and it’s harder to find things that are wrong with the images,” Mandyam said. “So, you have to make sure you don’t get frustrated. You have to keep an open mind and stay calm. You [also] have to value whatever your teammates say. A big part of it is just keeping the support of your team and then staying confident even though it might get really difficult. I think we’re really proud of where we got to.”
Mandyam also said she has learned and solidified a wide range of skills that she hadn’t expected when she joined.
“It’s obviously helpful if you want to go into the cyber-security field,” Mandyam said. “But, I feel like it teaches you a lot of skills, not necessarily related to cyber security, like just working in a team, preparing for competitions, and [managing] stressful situations.”
Isaev said she feels empowered being on the team with the other girls and in other STEM clubs for women like SWENext. Having this team of girls in CyberPatriots has been comforting and inspiring.
“It’s good having other female team members,” Isaev said, “It’s [not] intimidating, but it feels a little overwhelming when it’s only guys. When we go into the club meetings, it’s like we’re the only girls.”
Having learned technical skills through competing, as well as finding a supportive and encouraging community, Isaev and the rest of the group said they hope to motivate still more girls to join CyberPatriots and compete in next year’s CyberPatriot XVII competition.
“We want to encourage them,” Saad said and Isaev joined in: “More girls should definitely join.”