NIC completes first cybersecurity class with Post Falls High School

North Idaho College dual credit students completed the first cybersecurity classes at Post Falls High School after a successful fall semester.

The high school’s fall semester was the first term in the program, which was developed by NIC and Post Falls High as the result of a grant from the National Security Administration called the Cybersecurity High School Initiative (CHI) grant.

The dual credit program is facilitated through NIC’s cybersecurity program and led by NIC assistant professor Bob Quant and Post Falls High teacher Ryan Vordahl.

Last year, Vordahl, along with Jason Green of Kootenai Technical Education Campus, attended summer training hosted by City University of Seattle, the primary coordinator of the CHI grant.

Vordahl taught two periods of introduction to cybersecurity as dual credit courses in the fall term at PFHS. In the inaugural semester, 39 students completed the course and are eligible for three college credits from NIC.

The accomplishment is another step in NIC’s mission to help Idaho high schools bring cybersecurity courses into their schools and cybersecurity talent to local businesses, Quant said.

“This initiative will greatly contribute to the education of the youth in our area in cybersecurity,” Quant said. “These dual credit courses are just one more tool NIC and partner high schools can offer to our students in reducing the costs of their college educations and helping them into the field of information technology and cybersecurity.”

Dual credit classes are one of many recent accomplishments of NIC’s cybersecurity program, including receiving a certificate of academic excellence from the National Security Agency in 2018. NIC also opened a fully functional security operations center in fall 2021 with grant funding from the Idaho Office of the Governor for cybersecurity education and training in collaboration with the seven other Idaho colleges and universities.

Visit c4cyi.cityu.edu/scholarships/chi-grant/ to learn about the CHI grant and the Cybersecurity High Schools Innovations Project.

For information about NIC’s cybersecurity or dual credit courses, contact Quant at robert.quant@nic.edu or 208-929-4036.