60 St. Vrain Valley incoming seniors attend cybersecurity mini-internships
60 St. Vrain Valley incoming seniors attend cybersecurity mini-internships
https://www.timescall.com/2026/06/12/st-vrain-valley-ccybersecurity-internships/
Publish Date: 2026-06-12 15:39:00
Source Domain: www.timescall.com
About 60 St. Vrain Valley rising high school seniors are helping local businesses beef up their cybersecurity through a two-week, paid mini-internship program.
The students, in sessions held at Silver Creek and Skyline high schools this month, spend the morning learning about the The National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, Cybersecurity Framework and hearing from those who work in cybersecurity. In the afternoons, they work in teams with businesses to to conduct security audits.
Students from the cybersecurity P-TECH program speak during a practice interview at Silver Creek High School in Longmont on Thursday. (Joel Solis/Staff Photographer)
“We’ve learned a lot,” said Silver Creek rising senior Mica Friedly, who attended the first session and will work as a teaching assistant for the second session. “There’s going to be a lot of stuff I take away. Even if I don’t go into cybersecurity as a career, I can keep myself safer.”
Along with cybersecurity training, students took field trips to NIST and Metropolitan State University of Denver. The internship culminates in a final presentation where students present their cybersecurity solutions to parents, industry professionals, higher education representatives and business owners.
St. Vrain is using about $90,000 in grant money to pay the students, who make $20 an hour and also earn a certification and class credit. Participating businesses and nonprofits include Longmont Florist, Up-A-Creek Robotics, Longmont Library, Circle Graphics, Habitat for Humanity and the Latino Chamber of Commerce of Boulder County.
“We’re helping these small businesses and saving them money,” said Silver Creek cybersecurity instructor Beth Cerrone, who based the mini-internship program on a similar opportunity she developed for low-income high school students in Washington, D.C.
Most of the students are in the early college P-TECH programs at Silver Creek and Skyline. For P-TECH, or Pathways in…
