June 8, 2021, Santa Rosa, CA –Santa Rosa Junior College’s (SRJC) computer science club won the community college segment of this year's Bay Area Cybersecurity Mayor's Cup competition.  This was the first year that community colleges have competed in the Mayor's Cup. Santa Rosa Mayor Tom Schwedhelm will be presented with the trophy in June and it will remain in the city’s possession until there is a new winner.
 
Cyber games and competitions provide environments where students can learn and practice cybersecurity tradecraft. Current and former SRJC students Celeste Maldonado, Nathalie Baladejo-Reynosa, Will Owen Young and Max vonBlankenburg made up this year’s winning computer science club team under the guidance of Eric Skagerberg, the club's faculty advisor.
 
“My favorite part of the experience was using Google Cloud Platform and learning to host these services,” said vonBlankenburg. “I’ve never done anything like it before. Hacking the website at the end was the most fun, but learning a new technology was my favorite part.”
 
The California Mayors Cyber Cup promotes awareness of the importance of cybersecurity for  communities’ safety and growth. The event was started in 2018 to bring local governments and businesses together to celebrate K-12 cybersecurity education and student participation in cybersecurity competitions. The Bay Area Community College Consortium sponsored the Greater Bay Area event and the Baycyber League team created, organized and delivered the virtual, regional competition.
 
SRJC’s Computer Studies department offers foundational classes in operating systems, cloud computing (Systems Administration) and networking. Cybersecurity offensive, defensive and monitoring classes, some programming, and project management are also available. For more information visit the website at  https://cs.santarosa.edu/.