SAN ANTONIO – Thousands of local students have learned about cybersecurity and the growing industry thanks in part to programs offered by the San Antonio Museum of Science and Technology.
Since opening in August of last year, thousands of local students have visited Area 21, located inside the Tech Port Center and Arena.
“Our goal with Area 21 opening is to have 100,000 students coming through this space every year,” said Cliff Zintgraff, the chief learning officer at SAMSAT.
SAMSAT created a security operations center where they offer different opportunities for students.
Students who take part become cyber warriors and learn how to detect, investigate and respond to cyber threats.
“We teach three topics. One of those topics is the basic things you do on the computer, like virus scanning, setting up firewalls. We also teach about cyphers. Why you want to encrypt content and how do you encrypt content and then we make sure what a security operations is really like,” Zintgraff said.
Giselle DeLeon, a STEM educator, says the opportunity is changing lives.
“I’m from this area. I grew up here. I still live down the street. Seeing the tech port, come in here and us with SAMSAT come into the area and give stem opportunities to kids. To be more hands on. No pressure of high level academia. We bring it down to them and they bring it up to us. It’s awesome. It’s a wonderful experience,” DeLeon said.
Zintgraff said there are still big plans for the space.
“We are going to continue and expand programming,” Zintgraff said.
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