$1.1 million in cybersecurity scholarships acts as a ‘major stepping stone’ for five students

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$1.1 million in cybersecurity scholarships acts as a 'major stepping stone' for five students

March 3, 2026

Five WWU cybersecurity students received a total of $1.1 million in scholarships from the Department of War (formerly referred to the Department of Defense) last fall.

Juniors Karish Bernard, Jayden Gatewood, Brian Lucio and senior Quinn Stone received the DoW Cyber Service Academy (CSA) scholarship while senior Alex Glydewell received the DoW Science, Mathematics and Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship-for-Service.

The grant will pay each student's full tuition and reimbursement for laptops and books, and students will have a guaranteed paid summer internship with the DoW. In addition, CSA recipients receive a $29,000 annual stipend while Glydewell, who received the SMART scholarship, receives a $30,000 annual stipend.

In order to receive the scholarship, students must commit to work for the DoW for a minimum of one year following graduation. For each additional year of full scholarship funding, recipients commit to an additional year of paid service. No military service is required, and scholarship recipients may work as civilians.

The purpose of each grant is to support the recruitment of STEM talent and enhance the national pipeline for the development of top cyber personnel.

The promise of a full-tuition scholarship and guaranteed employment helps open doors that may be closed to students otherwise, Cybersecurity Program Coordinator Laura Ghan said.

After their service agreement is fulfilled, the students will be able to continue employment with the DoW or transition into another workplace with invaluable experience on their resume, Stone said.

"It's really nice to be able to get real world experience that I'm going to be able to build off of," he said.

Only 75 CSA scholarships were awarded nationwide, and Western was one of the few institutions to have more than one student recipient, Computer Science Chair Filip Jagodzinski said.

"The number of students who received scholarships speaks to the excellence of our program," he said. "To have four WWU students recognized - and another for the SMART scholarship - reflects our student's dedication and academic prowess."

Lucio said one of the most exciting pieces of having such a large scholarship cohort is how it may offer more opportunities to future students.

"I really think it puts Western Washington University on the map for being one of the top cybersecurity schools in the nation," he said.

Another benefit of working for the DoW is the security clearance it offers, which is highly sought after in the job market, Glydewell said.

"It's a very major stepping stone," he said. "Companies really like to see when you have a DoW or government position on your resume, and it can be really helpful even in the private sector."

Cybersecurity professionals in the DoW monitor, analyze, detect and respond to potential cyber-attacks and threats. Some examples of national cyber threats could be millions of Social Security numbers being exposed, malware that causes a plane to crash or malicious actors hacking into energy infrastructure and cutting power to millions of people.

Cybersecurity doesn't begin and end on the national scale, but trickles into every person's life in some way, Stone said.

"Technology's everywhere now and is a part of everybody's life, so if you're not being careful with it, it can really stick with you forever," Stone said.

To learn more about the cybersecurity program, visit https://cs.wwu.edu/cybersecurity/programs-cyberbs

Mikayla King ('17) covers the College of Science and Engineering and Woodring College of Education for University Communications. Reach out to her with story ideas at [email protected].