What is GenCyber?

California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB), with historical partnership with the Girl Scouts of San Gorgonio Council (GSSGC), hosts an annual GenCyber summer camp for middle and high school students from San Bernardino and Riverside Counties.

The goals of the program are to increase interest in cybersecurity careers and diversity in the workforce of the Nation, help all students understand safe online behavior, and how to be a good digital citizen. GenCyber at CSUSB is a service-oriented outreach program, seeking to provide education and career opportunities for girls in the Inland Empire. 

CSUSB’s GenCyber increases interest in cybersecurity through engaging and dynamic instruction, including role-playing, visual aids, hands-on activities, and discussion groups in both indoor and outdoor locations around campus. During the camp, girls learn about a variety of technical concepts, including networking, systems security, cyber operations and defense, and virtual reality. A highlight of the instruction is the drone programming and piloting module. In addition to technical concepts, girls learn the importance of personal online safety, the dangers of information sharing, and how to be a good digital citizen. 

During the week, the girls have the opportunity to learn about careers in cybersecurity from real-life cyber industry professionals from companies such as Facebook, Google, IBM, Bank of America, Red Hat, Northrop Grumman, and the Department of Homeland Security. Since 2015, over 1400 Girl Scouts have participated in GenCyber and over 300 students from CSUSB have contributed more than 4600 volunteer hours to help make GenCyber a success.

GenCyber CSUSB 2024 Summer Camp

Welcome Rising Seniors to GenCyber 2024! You’ve all gathered from around the Inland Empire to participate in a full week of cyber courses, outdoor activities, career/professional development, and more. Camp will be hosted at CSUSB’s main San Bernardino campus and include overnight stays, allowing rising seniors to get a taste of college life

This year’s camp theme is all about the “CyberGuardians: Navigating the AI-Enhanced Future,” and will have CSUSB cyber student-led sessions highlighting NIST Cybersecurity Framework work roles available in the cyber industry. As with all CSUSB GenCyber camps, the week will focus on cybersecurity awareness, training, and career mentoring designed to stimulate student interest and competency in cyber content and career development.

The approach this year is to introduce various cybersecurity professions to college-bound students while connecting the future job-seekers with IT and cyber-related employers of our own region who will be hosting “Power Hour” career mentorship sessions. Participating employers this year will come from our current IECI community development program that fosters the development of cyber talent from K-12 into full-time employment in the Inland Empire. More information on IECI is on our IECI page and at ie-cyber.org.

The camp’s goal and measurement of success will revolve around student knowledge and application of the GenCyber Cybersecurity principles and concepts via cyber career jobs such as Exploitation Analyst, Cyber Defense Analyst, Secure Software Assessor, Cyber Defense Forensics Analyst, System Administrator, and various activities involving imaging raspberry pis for networking and pentesting, digital forensics, escape room, cyber hygiene and safe internet use, ethical hacking, the NICE Challenge cyber range, and various physical challenges including rock climbing and the CSUSB high-altitude Leadership Challenge Center ropes course.