Introduction


My experience at Old Dominion University (ODU) has been a insightful yet enjoyable experience in my life. More specifically, the Cybersecurity program in tandem with the ODUGlobal program has been rewarding yet rigorous, allowing me to be flexible with my studies and work-life balance while also holding me up to a standard that helped me gain important values and skills that I wouldn’t have anywhere else. These programs not only helped me sharpen my technical abilities, but also my problem solving, critical thinking, and analytical thinking skills. Since these types of skills are a necessity in today’s society, I focused on honing those skills as well use real-world examples to dig deeper into the cybersecurity mindset and environment, in which these skills are concentrated on to the max. With areas like ethical hacking and modern day system detection, I used all the knowledge from the various projects and labs to provide aid and application of those skills to real-world scenarios, which came from course like Cyber Law, Programing courses like Linux and Python, and Cybersecurity and Social Sciences.


Program Reflection


Throughout my time at ODU, the opportunities that were given to me to help me apply my knowledge and insights of cybersecurity were a key aspect in how I could move on to realistic environments. From simulated attacks through a multitude of programming languages and systems, to incident response labs and discussions, this program help me understand the significance of these scenarios, where huge situations can lead to individuals being harmed and breached. Projects such as vulnerability assessments and step by step guides to ethical hacking prepared me to think from multiple perspectives in a situation, which helps me empathize and fully embrace a secure and promising career field like cybersecurity.

Obstacles Encountered

This program had its fair share of challenges, especially when it came to subjects/classes like cryptography (which stemmed from calculus), and cybersecurity ethics. The complexity as well as the workload in these course required full attention to time management and efficient and effective study tactics. In order to combat these challenges, I participated in student study groups as well as virtual labs and online resources to comprehend these situations in and out of the classroom.

Overcoming Challenges and Support from Previous Courses

Courses within computer science fundamentals such as introduction to computer engineering and pre-calculus helped me tackle the seemingly difficult and more advanced concepts down the line. My early exposure to programming languages aided in the switched from computer science to cybersecurity. These skills were proven valuable when I was faced with troubleshooting and exposure to new concepts within cybersecurity, which by the help of multiple sources like peers and professors as well as online resources, I was able to combat effectively to help me and my future career in cybersecurity.


IDS 493 Reflection


Course Description

IDS 493 is a way for you to summarize everything you have done in your school career in a condensed and effective matter not only to pass the class, but to use later in life for your career. It helps students integrate their experiences into a creative and professional format.

Valuable Concepts Learned

The biggest takeaways from my experience in this course was gaining the ability to arrange my thoughts and experiences in a coherent and efficient manner for others to observe. In the past, I struggled with laying my ideas out without it sounding jumbled up with no organization. Now, I can easily relay my technical knowledge to others in a efficient manner. Also, this course challenged me to create an environment that not only showed all the efforts I put in my life up to this point, but how to communicate it for professionals and employers to understand.

Challenges in IDS 493

The biggest problem I had in this course was articulating my experiences at one time. Since I had 4 years of experiences, assignments, labs, and essays, it was difficult for me to pick out the huge bowl of successes I had. Also, ensuring that I could speak for each and every one of them no matter how long ago it may have taken place showed my capabilities and strengths. This course also tackled my values, where stability wasn’t always present, and growth seemed stagnant at times. This will forever be the case, but understanding that I have a lot of work ahead of me was a challenge that I plan to continue tackling.

Proud Moments and Support from Previous Course

I am proud of all my course pages as well as the project I included in my Linux course page. It shows how eager and attentive I was during that class as well as the knowledge that was retained when I left the course. Also, if I had to show one person something within my portfolio, it would be this IDS 493 page. The amount of comprehension of this entire course here while also gaining feedback from my peers through peer reviews helped me articulate all my opinions and experiences into a worthy medium and environment.


Conclusion


The Cybersecurity program here at ODU taught me that strength lies in acknowledgement of change and determination to succeed. In order to fix a system, or implement a cyber-policy, or even just to figure out how to login to a computer, this program aided me in overcoming and adapting to situations and understanding how I adapted. I became great at understanding that cybersecurity isn’t just about the technology and tool side of society, but also the ethical and people side as well. Interdisciplinary thinking had made me a better critical thinker and communicator. As I move on from ODU, I will utilize every possible facet of my school career to pursue security certifications, training on network defense and threat intelligence, and most importantly, taking each and every challenge that may confront me whether in my cybersecurity career or my personal life.