My Goal To Become A Cyber-Security Expert

As a child born and raised in Rwanda, I spent my early age using the computer for entertainment (watching movies and playing video games). I thought the hardest thing you can do with them is to create a word document or make a spreadsheet. I was formally introduced to the computer world when I was enrolled in mathematics, physics, and computer science combination in high school. I remember how excited and amazed I was when I executed my first C program. With NetBeans 7. 1. 1, I wrote a code that displays a name, age, and occupation. My interest in applied sciences awakened since that very moment, it even become a hobby as I played with many code editors and imitate other people’s work. As for example, I could spend days trying to design apple website’s homepage, however, I realized that the problem solving and Innovation was what I enjoy most and I decided to pursue an engineering career.

Currently I am doing electronics and telecommunication at the University of Rwanda College of Science and Technology. I was exposed to subjects such as microprocessor, embedded systems, c/c++ Programming and entrepreneurship. As a freshman, I joined a college club (called GIANT) whose main goal is to help students be familiar with school subjects and it is a place to collaborate and work on some simple projects. For example, with the help of my colleagues, I did a digital clock with LEDs, 2N440, resistors, capacitors, ATMega328 with Arduino bootloader and other few components. These activated my unshakable desire to pursue Master of Science in Information Technology.

I had been working with AIRTEL as an IT/NETWORK intern. Working with the experienced team helped me realize the importance of teamwork and I developed my leadership, oral and written communication skills. I also learned some techniques to best serve the clients. My daily responsibilities include maintenance of hardware and software, server application, troubleshoot issues, software updates, and backup. Through this internship, I have been exposed to the active directory where I can grant or revoke the access on files to some users over the same domain. In addition, using VPN I can give access a user to some files or allow him to send some emails and I am looking forward to working with the club subjects programmers to manage apps and software. Like for example, I will be working on USSD programming.

Despite the experience and skills I have acquired, I realized how important it is to have a well-secured system. Nowadays internet crime is a major threat, there are a lot of cyber threats these days and cybersecurity experts are needed to stay one step ahead. As technology is advancing so fast cybersecurity workforce will be in high demand in the future and it is the best place to make a difference by offering protection- sensitive and other personal information from cyber-attacks. In addition, cybersecurity is universal because every company needs someone to back them up. This decision of applying to MSIT at Carnegie Mellon University Africa will help me reach my career goal of becoming a cyber-security expert and IT entrepreneur. I am committed to having a career that gives me a higher purpose, which is to give an honorable service to my clients. I choose CMU because it is reputable and I have witnessed its impact on the African communities through its alumni. In addition, CMU provides a solid foundation for a career by working with great companies like IBM, Thomson Reuters through internships and students spend many hours of hands-on industries by the time they graduate and I want a role that will allow me to put the things I have learned into practice.

I believe that the opportunity that I will get as a student at CMU or as alumni will enable me to meet my career goals.