In October, members of the board Jeff Thompson, Eron Jordan, Mark Barnette and AFCEA International Young AFCEAN Outreach Coordinator, Sarah Christensen spoke with an IT Networking class at Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) - Woodbridge Campus. The assistant professor for information technology, Walter Pehrsson, is the faculty advisor for the chapter. The purpose of the visit was to announce the formation of a student chapter of AFCEA at NOVA and gauge the viability of student interest in supporting the chapter formation. The NOVA Student Chapter is being sponsored by the Belvoir Chapter and marks the first community college based student chapter in AFCEA's 70 year history. The presenters spoke about scholarships, memberships, internships and networking opportunities. The presentation was well received with all 27 students requesting further information on the chapter. AFCEA Belvoir chose to sponsor the student chapter at NOVA for several reasons. The college is located throughout the northern Virginia area, local to the Fort Belvoir parent chapter. It offers courses, certifications and degree programs across a wide array of STEM related areas including cybersecurity, and intelligence related majors. In order to spread the word to other students, additional classroom discussions and other media marketing are planned over the next month. Interested students are being asked to provide contact information so that they can be notified of an interest meeting to be held in early December. A ceremony is anticipated to be held in late January of next year which will mark the official request to form the new chapter. |
