Five students have formed together to establish the first Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS) Student Chapter in the state of Arkansas at Phillips Community College of the University of Arkansas (PCCUA) under the direction of the newly formed chapter advisors Charlotte Purdy and Cynthia Grove.
While attending a WiCyS Conference, Purdy and Grove noticed the lack of a student chapter in the state of Arkansas. Upon returning from the conference, they reached out to students in the Information Systems Technology degree program, with a focus on cyber security, to see if there was an interest in joining WiCyS. The students were eager to join and establish the first PCCUA Student Chapter.
Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS) was founded in 2013 by Dr. Ambareen Siraj through a National Science Foundation grant and is dedicated to bringing together women in cybersecurity. Through the WiCyS Student Chapter, students will be provided with support, mentorship, training, networking opportunities, and access to industry and academic leaders.
Arkansas County students Angela Heath, Ashlynne Jenkins, Jamie Peabody, and Gloria Crawford and Phillips County student Megan Pruett joined WiCyS and founded the PCCUA Student Chapter. The focus of the chapter is to encourage more females to become interested in cyber technology.
On May 10, the chapter members were inducted into the PCCUA Student Chapter. Two of the five students, Angela Heath and Ashlynne Jenkins, are 2023 graduates and received their WiCyS honor cords during the induction meeting, and all were presented with a membership certificate by Dean of the Division of Business and Information Systems Monica Quattlebaum.
