On Wednesday November 13, 2024 the Level 2 and 3 ECTS Computer Programming Students went to Mercyhurst University. The trip had the following agenda:
- 9:45/9:50am Arrival
- 10-11am Campus Tour- split in to 4 groups
- 11-11:30am Admissions Presentation
- 11:30-12:30 Lunch
- 12:30-1:30pm Cyber Security & Data Science Presentation
The afternoon students arrived at ECTS in the morning and we waited in the LGI until about 9:30 when it was time to leave. It felt a bit like a layover at an airport.
We arrived at Mercyhurst at about 10am and immediately split into 3 groups (we established these before we left ECTS). We were greeted by Kim Masone (Assistant Director of Admissions Events & Visits) and 3 current Mercyhurst Students (Shane, Matthew, and Wesley). The Mercyhurst students each took a group on a tour of the campus. They did an amazing job! The campus was beautiful, the character and energy of the guides was fantastic (I was in Shane’s group, but I heard the other two were amazing as well). They provided all sorts of information about the campus, college life and even ways to help bring the cost of college down (eg. “The Erie Promise Grant“).
After the tour, we regrouped in a large room for a presentation on Mercyhurst, its history, the programs available, and how it all fits together. Students were given a t-shirt in exchange for allowing Mercyhurst to tell them more about the opportunities there (by this point, MANY of the students were interested in enrolling at Mercyhurst after high school).
After the presentation, we had lunch. It was an “all you can eat” at one of the campus cafeterias. Obviously, the students loved this. The food was plentiful, and delicious!
After lunch, we went to the building where the cyber security courses are taught. We met one of the professors there. He first gave a presentation where he shared the high job outlook for cybersecurity, as well as places graduates of Mercyhurst work (Amazon and Google were on the list, as well as many many other large tech companies). He then did a brief exercise in tryhackme.com which involved hashing and deciphering passwords (ethically!). The students thoroughly enjoyed the presentation and were thankful for the learning experience.
At 1:30, it was time to leave. It was clear no one felt ready to go. It was such a great experience. I hope this is something we can do with some regularity with the CMP classes. It was truly worth the time and effort!
