Southeast Missouri State University student Trevor Zobrist parlayed the hands-on experience he got with a cybersecurity internship at Assured Information Security (AIS) into a career.
Zobrist is graduated from Southeast on Saturday, Dec. 16 with a bachelor’s degree in cybersecurity, something he’s been passionate about for a long time.
“It puts you in a unique position to help protect people and their information within the online space,” Zobrist said. “Computers are always fun. They let you push the boundaries on things or solve problems.”
While working on his program at Southeast, Zobrist worked on personal projects related to his future field and eventually took an internship at AIS.That internship is what led to his full-time positon at AIS as a remote researcher.
In his first professional position, he will be working with artificial intelligence and machine learning, natural language processing, modeling and simulation, ontology, and other related research.
AIS provides government and commercial customers with cyber and information security capabilities, specializing in research, development, and consulting, and often bids on Department of Defense research contracts.
“With my internship, I learned to get to know the people you work with, even outside the professional lens,” Zobrist said. “Getting internships is hard. You have to keep working until it pays off.”
Zobrist points to his experience in cybersecurity at Southeast for developing his personal skills. He says that he felt exposed to a number of different disciplines, and it allowed him to find the niche he was interested in and explore it.
“I learned a wide range of technical skills as well as general problem-solving and critical thinking to success, regardless of domain,” Zobrist said.
Southeast was the first University in Missouri to offer a bachelor’s degree in cybersecurity. The state-of-the-art Cyber Range paired with high-level instruction are a few of the reasons Southeast was designated as an institution of higher education in Missouri with a statewide mission in cybersecurity. The program is accredited by ABET’s Computing Accreditation Commission and has been recognized by both the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education.
“My biggest takeaway is to be open to learning about anything and everything,” Zobrist said. “Don’t be afraid to fail. You always come out the other side better off.”
