The University of North Carolina at Charlotte

I enrolled at UNC Charlotte in the Fall 2016 semester to study Computer Science. After exploring interests in web development, big data, etc., I chose a focus in security.

In early 2019, I was accepted into graduate school to simultaneously pursue a Master's Degree in Cybersecurity, alongside my Bachelor's in Computer Science.

During Summer 2019 I was offered a full academic scholarship from the National Science Foundation. The CyberCorps Federal Scholarship for Service is designed to recruit and train the next generation of cybersecurity professionals for employment in the federal government. This prestigious award supported me through the completion of graduate school.

I have also had the honor to be inducted into multiple prestigious academic honors organizations including the Sigma Alpha Lambda Honor Society, the Phi Beta Delta Honor Society for International Scholars, and the UNC Charlotte Global Engagement Scholars Program.

In May 2020 I graduated with my Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science. I then completed my Master's Degree in Cybersecurity in May 2021.

Product Security Engineer, Honeywell

During Summer 2019 I worked with the Product Security team at Honeywell Safety and Productivity Solutions in Atlanta, GA. Honeywell is a Fortune 100 company that is a global leader in the innovation and manufacturing of technologies that tackle some of the world’s most challenging issues surrounding energy, security, safety, productivity, and global urbanization.

At Honeywell, I learned industry standard practices for securing new product introductions. I was a part of their transition to agile software development, and wrote training and documentation for SD Elements; an external tool used to help project managers proactively create and implement their own security requirements at early stages in the agile software development life cycle.

I spent time Threat Modeling various products, and gained experience using industry-standard tools for this practice. I also learned about open-source scanning, binary scanning, static and dynamic analysis, final security reviews, as well as other common security practices.

The rest of my summer was spent doing research. While I spent a lot of that time building up my own security knowledge, I was able to deliver research in emerging technologies such as using Blockchain as a form of Decentralized Public Key Infrastructure to verify machine identity.

I'm very thankful to my mentors at Honeywell who not only helped expand my technical skill set, but provided me valuable career guidance. I am very confident that this experience will lay a strong foundation for my future career in cybersecurity.

Istituto Lorenzo de' Medici - Roma

I spent the Fall 2018 semester abroad in Rome, Italy. During my time at LdM, I studied Italian Language as well as Roman history, art, and architecture. I spent much of the semester doing undergraduate research into the empirical period of Ancient Rome, with extensive semester-long projects on the Castel Sant'Angelo and the Reign of Nero.

I also had the opportunity to travel around Europe, meeting people of all different types of diverse backgrounds and cultures. After returning to UNC Charlotte, I began volunteering as a Study Abroad Ambassador with the Office of Education Abroad, promoting international programs and assisting prospective students in their quest to study abroad. In August 2019, I was promoted to Senior Study Abroad Ambassador. I served in this capacity until May 2020.

To date, I have traveled to 20 countries.