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A panel discussion featuring two Southwestern Michigan College students and presenters of five earlier breakout sessions concluded Mishawaka High School’s information technology visit Nov. 22.

The panel in the Student Activity Center theatre featured faculty members Eric Clayborn, who earlier led PC upgrades, and Andrew Churchill, password security; Chuck Allen and Sergio Moreno of Midwest Energy and Communications (MEC); cybersecurity major Casey Clark, president of the Roadrunner esports team from Edwardsburg; and Hartford freshman Alexus Bond, an IT networking major.

Churchill detailed three steps to improve personal cybersecurity — enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) on critical accounts such as bank, email and phone to add an extra layer of protection; choose a reputable manager such as KeePass or Bitwarden to generate strong passwords; and update passwords as each service is used.

“My favorite thing, 100-percent, is helping old people who have never touched technology before,” Allen said. “We help people use (MEC’s) high-speed, fiber-optic internet service. We make videos we share on social media to help our customers have a great experience.”

Allen said a new career is “prompt engineering,” the process of creating and refining natural language instructions to guide artificial intelligence (AI) models to generate desired responses.

Another is “penetration tester,” a cybersecurity professional who simulates cyberattacks on a company’s systems to identify and fix security vulnerabilities.

“Quantum computing is on the horizon as well,” Churchill said. “Professors have to be a professional twice over. I have to know IT and I have to know teaching. Working with people and watching them grow and develop is the coolest thing ever. It’s a team sport, 100 percent.”

“Teamwork makes the dream work,” Moreno agreed. “Communication gives you a bigger picture and, potentially, better solutions.”

Information security jobs are predicted to grow by 33 percent from 2023 to 2033, which is more than eight times the national average for all jobs.

In computer and IT occupations, employment is projected to grow faster than average, with an average of 356,700 openings per year.

SMC’s IT program gives students an introduction to the field, learn the basics of computer hardware, maintenance and network repair. After mastering those skills, they move into in-depth studies of desktop infrastructure, wireless communication, installing and administering servers, network security and CISCO routers and switches.

They have the opportunity to pick up internationally-recognized certifications from CompTIA, CISCO and Microsoft and to gain invaluable professionalism skills such as project management, presentation and business communication. Finally, they apply their know-how in an internship.

The Associate in Applied Science in Networking is a two-year degree designed for entry-level work. It can also be adapted to transfer to a four-year school for a bachelor’s degree, such as partner Ferris State University.

There are also one-year certificate options in help desk or cybersecurity administration.

“Maybe you’re interested in IT, but you’re also interested in accounting. You can combine accounting with a cybersecurity minor in a bachelor’s degree. ” said Churchill, who left high school intending to teach history, then joined the Army.

“I didn’t know I was doing IT stuff,” Churchill said, “but I was with all the radios I fixed. I considered becoming a social worker. I got a communications degree. It wasn’t until I did my master’s in business administration that I started to see that business and IT are similar in a lot of ways, so I turned around and did a master’s degree in information security.”

Clark started with a middle-school coding class. High-school computer classes captured her interest. Her older brother, a gamer, attended SMC before her “and I learned from him. He’s going to be the first person to graduate from Ferris State with an esports productions degree.”

Bond, also a percussionist with the Symphonic Band, said, “It is hard not majoring in music, but I do enjoy it, so it is worth it.”

Bond tinkered with her mother’s and brother’s phones whenever there was an issue. “I love the hardware and tearing things open to see what each component does. Then in middle school I took a coding class like Casey and eventually coded my own game.”

Clark and Intramural Coordinator Ben Evans welcomed visitors to the Midwest Energy and Communications Esports Arena in the Barbara Wood Building, home to the SMC esports team.

The arena’s student-built machines showcase the IT program while also providing opportunities for students who love computers, gaming and competing.

Student officers such as Casey manage the team and schedule competitions as part of the National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) and the National Esports Collegiate Conference (NECC), which sponsors regular season competition and national championships for Valorant, Rocket League, League of Legends, Rainbow Six and Overwatch.

SMC’s esports team competes in Rocket League and Valorant but hopes to expand game options based on team members' interests and expertise. SMC’s Rocket League team was the NECC national runner-up in its division in 2022.