Students in two Career Technical Education programs at Orange Vista High School in Val Verde Unified School District are working together to strengthen “Our district has CTE programs ranging from film and video production to agriculture to our own graphic design and print shop that provides services to outside clients and other school districts,” said Michael McCormick, VVUSD superintendent. “It’s really exciting to see students from two different CTE pathways working together on a project.” The students in the Programming pathway are working on a 6x6 drone rover that will include a camera, similar to what you see law enforcement agencies use. The drone rover will be controlled by members of the Cybersecurity pathway, who are creating a system to operate the device. “Wiring is the biggest challenge with a project like this drone rover,” said Esteban Guillen, a member of Orange Vista’s advanced programming class. “There is a lot of trial and error that goes into creating a working device like this.” Jose Alva and his classmates in the Cybersecurity pathway spend a lot of time in front of computers, but he says cybersecurity is a critical issue now and in the future. He said that was a draw to participate in this type of coursework. “Learning this type of material when we’re younger creates a knowledge base for us when we move into a career,” he said. “Cybersecurity is an important part of everyone’s future and we must have a basic knowledge of it.” Tim Eleinko, who teaches two cybersecurity courses at Orange Vista, says students are learning hands-on about a variety of operating systems and industry certifications.  “This is kind of like a computer hacking class, but the exact opposite because the students are learning about how to strengthen security,” he said. Cybersecurity has become an especially important issue during the COVID-19 pandemic. HealthcareITNews.com reports that temporary hospitals that have been set up to care for patients are done so outside of a “defense-in-depth architecture” and because the nature of these facilities is about treating patients, IT and cybersecurity are lower on the priority list. “They are being set up quite quickly with constrained budgets, and the budget for those is not on IT, it’s on PPE, patient care, getting testing set up, everything a center should be focused on during this crisis,” Tom Burt, corporate vice president of Microsoft Customer Security & Trust, told Healthcare IT News. Cybersecurity classes have sustained success outside of the classroom. Students have been participating in CyberPatriot, a National Youth Cyber Education Program created by the Air Force Association to inspire K-12 students toward careers in cybersecurity or other STEM disciplines critical to our nation’s future.  CyberPatriot puts the skills students have learned in the class to the test against students from other schools. The team has advanced as far as the state semi-finals. “It’s really impressive to walk into the classrooms, these CTE classrooms and those throughout the district and see the students engaged,” McCormick said. “We’re going to continue to see evolution and growth in the CTE pathways statewide and I think that is a big benefit to these students and our next generation of leaders.”