Week 9

Throughout the week I have been preparing for my presentation. The date has been moved up earlier than I had originally thought, but it does not matter. I’m feeling confident about my presentation. I started on it two weeks ago and I’ve just finalizing everything. I believe it has enough information, but I think I will talk to my mentor about adding more because I keep finding interesting and useful information online. The conversation that kept coming up this week was if I was planning on getting my Ph.D after I finish my Master’s. This week I’ve had conversation with two NSF employees about furthering my education with cybersecurity by going into my Ph.D. It’s currently just a thought process, nothing has been decided, but I wanted to know what having my Ph.D. could provide me that my master’s can’t. The two things subject that came up academics and research. I received a lot of information for funding while I’m getting my Ph.D. I can’t say getting it is really my goal right now, but I can’t predict the future. I went to Baltimore this weekend to talk on a panel for QEM. The panel had professors from HBCU institutions, who asked us interns who are computer science majors and went to HBCUs, questions about the internship and how we feel HBCUs could better the stem field. It was a great experience, I met professors from Florida A&M, Winston-Salem, Alabama A&M, and Tuskegee. I plan on reaching out to everyone as soon as possible. This upcoming week will be my final week in Washington, D.C. for the summer internship program. I’m going to be happy being back and seeing my family, but I’m also going to miss the DMV area. If you want to make it in cybersecurity, this is the perfect area to live. It kind of ended quickly.