Students, faculty and staff from the University of North Georgia (UNG) invested in the next generation of national leaders at the Youth in Government (YIG) Expo hosted Feb. 23-25 by the Georgia Center for Civic Engagement in St. Simons Island, Georgia. They assisted with the cybersecurity and national security academies within the expo.

The academies each included hands-on learning activities such as escape rooms and dead-drop locations for exchanging secret information. It was all with an eye toward helping high school students gain an early taste of potential careers in government.

Faculty members Dr. Lindsay Linsky, Dr. Douglas Orr and Dr. Bryson Payne and staff member Heath Williams shared their expertise, with graduate student Jessica Allen and undergraduate students Zach Furbush and Dagen Shehorn helping lead sessions for high school students. Cadet Vincent Furtado also assisted and shared about his experience in UNG's Corps of Cadets.

Linsky serves as assistant director for UNG's Center for Teaching, Learning and Leadership, coordinator of the computer science endorsement program, lead instructor for the GenCyber AGENT Initiative, and professor of Middle Grades, Secondary and Science Education. She organized the group from UNG that attended and helped plan the cybersecurity and national security academies.

"We wanted to give students a glimpse of what careers in these fields would be like," Linsky said.

Furbush, a junior from Cumming, Georgia, pursuing a degree in international affairs, helped run the diplomacy portion of the YIG Expo's national security academy. He was impressed with the high school students.

"You really get to see leaders showing up in every group and everyone displaying their own strengths," Furbush said. "You don't feel the divisions of politics like you do in other places."

Dagen Shehorn, a freshman from Evans, Georgia, pursuing a degree in cybersecurity, was grateful to be part of the cybersecurity academy by helping with the escape room, a panel discussion and a capture-the-flag challenge. She saw the YIG Expo as an opportunity to give back.

"I was fortunate enough to have a cyber pathway at my high school, so I like to take any chance I can to volunteer to help high school students get excited about how they can be involved in cyber," Shehorn said.

Allen, a Warner Robins, Georgia, resident in her first year of the Doctor of Education in higher education leadership and practice at UNG, serves as a graduate assistant for Linsky. She assisted with the planning of UNG's involvement at the YIG Expo. She said the expo ties into her research interest in supporting student development.

"It helped me think about the importance of access and exposure at all different levels," Allen said. "It's really important for students to be able to participate in transformative opportunities like this expo."

Williams, executive director of Cadet Career Success, said UNG's work at the YIG Expo aligns perfectly with the university's strategic big bet to "get in the national security game."

"It was a great opportunity to showcase some of our degree programs, such as cybersecurity and strategic and security studies," Williams said. "It's critical we get younger people involved in national security."