How Pitt’s CyberCamp Is Drawing High Schoolers Back To The University

High school students participating in Pitt's annual CyberCamp program walk away with not only a better understanding of the threats that exist in an increasingly hostile digital world, but also a sightline on a globally necessary career path.

But more and more of the 1,000-plus teenagers estimated to have participated in the program over the last nine years are not walking away at all. Many have returned for advanced camp sessions and, in some years, up to a quarter of those students - mostly from high schools across Pittsburgh and nearby communities and many still from underserved areas - have gone on to enroll as Pitt undergraduates.

Administrators of the camp, which maintains its no-cost status to participants thanks to partnerships like those it has with the EQT Foundation and The Grable Foundation, aren't necessarily surprised by that percentage; they know the value the camp offers, let alone its reputation with high school teachers who often provide a necessary push for interested teens to try to snag one of the highly coveted 120-or-so annual seats.

Those leaders are also excited to see how the newest evolution to the CyberCamp curriculum - the introduction of an even more advanced course for students who have been through the camp's first two offerings yet desire a third year - may further move the needle.

Early on, CyberCamp attendees were primarily high school juniors and seniors, said Kate Ulreich, a longtime Pitt Digital staffer who has been part of the CyberCamp leadership corps for seven years.

But in recent years, more high school first-years and sophomores have signed up for early-level courses.

"They can take the standard camp and the advanced camp, and then what else are they going to do?" Ulreich said. "We had kids repeating the advanced camp for two years, they liked the camp so much. That was the thought process in creating this advanced 2.0 program. Now we are giving them this next level."

That next level is part of a grander effort of the Institute for Cyber Law, Policy and Security (Pitt Cyber), which oversees the camp with support from Pitt Digital. Programs like CyberCamp create a pathway for would-be future cybersecurity pros to join an industry seeking to immediately add more than 4 million additional cyber workers, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF). The WEF estimates the global cybersecurity shortage could reach more than 85 million workers by 2030.

To boot, this comes at a time when the FTC reported fraud losses topping $12.5 billion in 2024. A significant portion of that came via digital means, including nearly $2 billion alone through social media scams.

The long-running standard and advanced curricula come courtesy of the Air and Space Forces Association's CyberPatriot program; Pitt Cyber Founding Director David Hickton serves on the CyberPatriot board of advisors. Pitt's new third tier, aimed at later-career high schoolers as a potential bridge to eventual college courses, came to fruition once instructor Ahmed Ibrahim, a teaching associate professor in Pitt's School of Computing and Information, developed a custom curriculum. Ibrahim led a virtual pilot of the additional advanced camp in 2024, and its in-person iteration debuted this summer.

"They have the necessary foundation," Ibrahim said of the general knowledge level of the high schoolers he's seen already come through the newer advanced offering. "We can hit the ground running."