Southern California Cybersecurity Community College Consortium

Southern California Cybersecurity Community College Consortium
August 2016

"Our  community college consortium is dedicated to developing cybersecurity pathways for K-12 students​ from high school to college and on to a cybersecurity profession. We believe that the CyberPatriot program helps students develop the technical and soft skills needed for a successful career in cybersecurity."  
 - Irvin Lemus and Tobi West, SoCalCCCC


Established in 2015, SoCalCCCC is the collaborative effort of Coastline College, Cypress College, Irvine Valley College, Long Beach City College, and Rio Hondo College. Our goal is to develop pathways to success in cybersecurity for K-12 students in the Southern California region. Our primary focus is building teams in the Orange County and Los Angeles County areas to compete in CyberPatriot's national cyber defense competition.

SoCalCCCC’s mission is to bridge the gap between K-12 students, community colleges, and industry. We promote cybersecurity education through community outreach, classroom visits, and hosting our local K-12 students at our colleges for CyberPatriot training workshops and competitions. Our vision is for all high schools and middle schools in Southern California to have the opportunity to compete in CyberPatriot.

We service our region with mentors that meet regularly to collaborate, brainstorm ideas, develop best practices, and provide training for the K-12 students. Mentors are hand-selected from the colleges by faculty and trained to prepare CyberPatriot competitors. This mentor training program gives college students first-hand experience in educating others and introduction to various IT concepts. Additionally, professional development is provided for all participating K-12 teachers in our region, to ensure the teachers also have the opportunity to further develop their cybersecurity skills.

We promote cyber awareness and inspire students to pursue cybersecurity careers. Students have the opportunity to establish their cyber education at our colleges through our certificates, degrees, and industry-recognized vendor certification prep classes such as CompTIA Network+, Security+ and Cisco’s CCNA, just to name a few.

CyberPatriot is an excellent fit to help achieve the goals of our college consortium. Using the CyberPatriot​ competition as our foundation, we host workshops for K-12 students, their teachers, and mentors on a monthly basis. Our workshops focus on teamwork, ethics, and leadership while building technical skills in a college environment to stimulate students’ interest in the field of cybersecurity.

Learn more at  www.socalcccc.org.