Meet Some of Our Computer & Digital Forensics Students

The biggest thing I love about my program is the candid relationship we all have with each other. Professors don't hold back in telling you when you haven't done good work, but they also take every opportunity to congratulate and build you up when you do well. My classmates and I all cheer each other on so much when we get that job we wanted or get to speak at a big conference. I think that family aspect is something a lot of other schools miss out on.

The open-ended projects I've worked on in my Digital Forensics classes have been the most beneficial to me. Professors will often give us full investigations to perform, which have increased in difficulty throughout the years. They hand us an image of a system and tell us to figure out what's there and write a report on it. They don't hold your hand through it. This is what real life will look like for us as Digital Forensics Analysts, and I'm so thankful I've already had so much experience with it just at Champlain.

After graduation, I will be moving to South Carolina to work with the Department of Defense in a Digital Forensics and Cybersecurity position. I actually received the offer for this position as part of the Department of Defense Cybersecurity scholarship program at the end of my sophomore year, so I've known my after-graduation plans for almost two years now. 

Champlain is one of a limited number of colleges and universities across the US which offer this scholarship to students in our field. I'm beyond thankful to have been chosen for this scholarship along with a few of my classmates, and am really looking forward to starting my career in federal service. 

With the Leahy Center and Champlain being federally recognized for their excellence in digital forensics, it became very clear that Champlain was the school for me. Other colleges don't boast the same hire rate straight out of college. If you told me in high school that I would be accepted for a job with the federal government by my sophomore year, I wouldn't have believed you. But in 2020, I signed a two-year contract with the Department of Defense for doing cybersecurity.

My public speaking class helped me not only become a better speaker, but also a better presenter. I never knew how to properly end a presentation besides with "So yeah, thank you." I didn't have good openings either. The class has helped strengthen my stage presence and my writing ability, which has carried over into my presentations for other classes.

I was a Technical Intern of Online Safety & Cybersecurity at the Leahy Center. This involved researching cyber threats targeting local businesses around Vermont, and creating materials for these businesses with information about different attacks and how to defend against them. 


I landed this internship my first semester of my first year, so I was building skills in the classroom as I went through the internship. The classes helped with the internship and vice-versa, as my internship introduced me to new concepts that we covered deeper in class.

My favorite class that I have taken at Champlain was the Malware Analysis course. In this class, we analyzed real pieces of malware in controlled environments and learned ways to detect, evaluate, and remove these malicious files from computers. My favorite part of this course was when we got to look at ransomware-this is a very common threat right now, and it is helpful to learn how these types of malware work!

My study-abroad experience stemmed from the Freeman Foundation Grant in the summer of 2019. I completed an internship abroad with Capgemini Invent in Shanghai, China. In addition, I took a few courses on Chinese Language and Culture at East China Normal University. 

This experience was extremely valuable as part of my overall education because I experienced living and working in the biggest city in the world! I learned how to navigate a workplace at a large, international company and how to meet, interact with, and communicate with top-level executives. I also learned about China's history, culture, language, and the importance they play in the world currently. 

I have also been a Global Technology Summer Analyst with Bank of America in Charlotte, North Carolina. During this internship, I collaborated virtually with team members, cohorts, and managers to complete projects dealing with data literacy, visualization, optimization, and environmental and social justice. I learned and developed cybersecurity attack and defense skills, including the usage of Kali Linux tools and Kibana, as well as developed skills in Microsoft Excel, Python, teamwork, and collaboration.

I realized that [Digital Forensics] was what I've always wanted to do, I just didn't know it was an actual profession—as far as I knew, it was what detectives did. When it came time for the application process I emailed the Senior Analyzer for Digital Forensics at DirecTV and I asked him which school he recommended for Digital Forensics and he essentially told me that if I was really serious about the major to go to Champlain College. The interns he's had in the past from Champlain have by far been the best. It was sort of a no-brainer. Go to Champlain College because it has a good reputation in the industry. 

The thing I love about the Leahy Center is that it's an actual world-class laboratory that allows students to do ground-breaking research their first year there. Although they [classes and the Leahy Center] both teach real-world things, at the Leahy Center there are real-world consequences. In class, if I do something wrong I can just start over, but at the Leahy Center if I'm doing research and I mess something up, I have to start the whole project over because the evidence I had has been tampered with and it won't be proper to analyze.

I was a security engineer at a small company called Boingo Wireless and what they do is that they distribute wifi for major venues like airports and military bases. When I got there, within the first week I was actually confronted by the director and he said, "Hey, I don't know if you don't feel comfortable or not, but always feel comfortable to ask questions during meetings," because during the first week I essentially attended every meeting that they had. He was surprised when I told him, I actually understood everything—that was the reason I wasn't asking any questions.

Towards the end of the internship they were trying to get me to get Champlain grads to work at Boingo because of the fact that they saw me as a sophomore and how experienced I'd been.