Gallatin College MSU grant will bridge gaps in cybersecurity education across Montana

BOZEMAN - Gallatin College Montana State University will use a $50,000 Cybersecurity Pathways grant to support Montana educators and help local high school students earn cybersecurity certification.

Ronda Black, program director of information technology at Gallatin College MSU, received the one-year grant from the Montana's Future at Work program, which provides two-year colleges with opportunities for career outreach through the Montana University System. Using the grant, Black said she hopes to create a "whoa" moment for students who are unfamiliar with cybersecurity, in addition to meeting the demand for professionals in the field.

"Cybersecurity is not just information technology. It's not just coding. It's not just network administration," Black said. "Cybersecurity is everywhere, and I think this grant is going to help students, teachers and counselors in every area to understand how they can be a part of it."

The first prong of Black's grant begins with a statewide network. On Jan. 29, she launched the 406 CyberSmart Teachers' Lounge, and she plans to release the 406 CyberSmart Teens Network during the spring semester. Both provide cybersecurity resources and collaborative spaces for users across Montana. 

For teachers wanting to bring cybersecurity education into their classrooms, the online lounge will serve as a one-stop shop for watching trainings, accessing curriculum across several subjects and collaborating with other educators, Black said. In a separate student lounge, teenagers can play cybersecurity games and find career resources, including recordings of Montana industry members discussing their work.

Black said many students associate cybersecurity with coding, but career paths range from implementing company-wide risk management practices to identifying system vulnerabilities through ethical hacking. More than 1,500 cybersecurity jobs were available in Montana in 2025 and are expected to experience rapid growth by 2034. Information security analyst positions, for example, are forecast to expand by 29%, which is much faster than the average 3% growth of most occupations, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

However, there are more jobs than professionals who can fill them, Black said.

"Gallatin College can help bridge that gap in providing cybersecurity awareness to students all across Montana, and I think grant work is our best path for doing that," she said.

Another component of Black's grant will take high school students' cybersecurity awareness one step further. This spring, students attending Belgrade High School and Bozeman's Petra Academy will earn cybersecurity certifications for free using the grant.

About 25 high school students will first take a dual-enrollment cybersecurity course, with the option to earn a CompTIA Security+ certificate and test their knowledge across several cybersecurity topics once they complete the course. Dual enrollment allows students to earn college credit at the high school level for a lower cost: They can apply the credits to Gallatin College MSU's network security class and get a head start on completing a two-year degree in IT network technology or IT cybersecurity and information assurance at the college.

The CompTIA Security+ certificate typically costs several hundred dollars, but it is desirable for more than 70,000 employers looking to fill positions nationwide, according to CyberSeek.

"Out of my small classroom budget, the certification could cost me two grand for a class of 25, and that's just for licensing to use the program," said Courtney Waliser, computer science and business education teacher at Belgrade High School. "That's not something our students would normally be able to do. Having those certifications opens other doors, and they can go on to some of the internships we're working on setting up."

Waliser said Black has been instrumental in making sure the high school curriculum is up to date with current technology trends and skills industry members are looking for. Through the spring dual-enrollment course, students will learn about system vulnerabilities, instant response to threats, identity management and more.

Black said the lessons demonstrate for students how cybersecurity applies to their personal lives, whether that be adjusting their home router settings to make it less likely to be exploited or assessing how their personal metadata becomes publicly available after posting photos online.

"I really want to put tools in schools' hands that teachers can use easily and that students can go home and use right away," Black said. "It's giving them that power back in their hands."

To literally place learning in students' hands, Black will also create Cyber Kits for classrooms across the state, funded in part by her grant.

The kits will include an instructional video for educators and hands-on group activities, which tailor cybersecurity topics to several school subjects beyond computer science. They will be available for checkout this spring from the MSU Library.

"It's really about empowering teachers to get their students excited about cybersecurity," said Charly Malcom, who contributes to the grant's fiscal management and rollout as director of business operations and finance for Gallatin College MSU.