Building Nevada’s Cyber Future One Summer Camp at a Time
A Proven Track Record
Deven Slivka, another current UNLV student, credits the camp for his interest in the fast-growing and high-paying cybersecurity field. Slivka attended the camp in 2021 between his junior and senior years at Western High School. “I pretty much knew I wanted to study computer science in college, but it wasn’t until I came to camp that I found out I could specialize in cybersecurity and follow that as a career.”
Bryce Sowers and Bianca Ionescu were both music majors at Las Vegas Academy of the Arts before attending GenCyber Camp. After camp piqued their interest in cybersecurity, both ended up as computer science majors at UNLV, and GenCyber camp mentors for the next round of campers. Following graduation from UNLV, Sowers now works in the field while Ionescu is pursuing UNLV’s master’s in cybersecurity, is vice president of the UNLV Cyber Clinic, founder and president of UNLV’s WiCyS student chapter, and was selected for the very prestigious UNLV CyberCorps SFS scholarship.
“GenCyber Camp helped me determine what I really wanted to do when it came to college and in my future career,” Ionescu shared about the experience on UNLV Engineering’s Instagram. “It inspired me to pursue cybersecurity, to join cybersecurity organizations at UNLV — and be a leader for a couple of them — and even led to me getting a scholarship for my master’s degree. I am proof that the program works.”
Injecting Relevance
Summer 2025 was the largest camp to date with 70 Clark County students participating and a significant waitlist. “The interactive nature of the camp really resonates with the students and much of the growth and interest has come by positive word of mouth from prior participants and high school STEM teachers,” Jo said.
This year student participants started communicating with each other on the camp’s Discord channel, sharing their favorite daily activities, what they thought of the lectures and how many points they had earned. They shared memes, tips and even helped one another after hours with cybersecurity concepts and skills as they would be using those the next day at camp.
“We try our best to make everything we do fun while they’re learning, but we were really blown away to see how these students bonded with each other and shared feedback — with zero prompting from us, the organizers,” shared Mehdi Abid, cyber program coordinator.
The real-world and hands-on activities took a quantum leap forward in 2023 when UNLV student leaders for the camp conceived of and built an escape room as the culminating activity. From cracking computer pass codes, creating fake employee ID badges, disabling and accessing security cameras and outsmarting a room of laser traps, students employed all the skills they had learned during the week to successfully escape the room. For 2025, camp organizers drew inspiration from Netflix’s popular streaming show, Squid Game, integrating cybersecurity concepts with costumes and games played on the show.
“Keeping things fresh each year and including popular culture references helps keep the kids’ attention while also making it fun for the UNLV students who put the camp on,” continued Abid.
The camp could not exist without the hundreds of volunteer hours put in by UNLV Cyber Clinic, Layer Zero and Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS) members, computer science students, and members of CSN’s Cyber Club. More than 30 volunteers design lectures and exercises, prep all the laptops with software, guide the students in games, and organize many aspects of the camp.
This year they created their own unique trading card game and created a real-time digital tracking leaderboard. This peer engagement model helps build meaningful interactions both for the students creating and delivering the learning experiences as well as for the students in the camp.
The Future of UNLV’s Cybersecurity Camp
The UNLV GenCyber Camp has received national recognition, including:
· Garnering a mention during a congressional hearing of the Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD). The presentation outlined the office’s progress to implement the National Cyber Workforce and Education Strategy
· Hosting various White House VIPs during camp, including the former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
· Being invited to showcase the camp as a model program in leveraging university resources, student leadership, and community engagement at national GenCyber conferences
“Despite our proven success and impact, without renewed funding, we risk closing a program that has played a critical role in engaging new students and addressing the cybersecurity talent shortage in Southern Nevada and the state,” said Yoohwan Kim, computer science professor and co-director of the camp.
“But we are confident that won’t happen. By working together with the community and Nevada corporations, we can invest in the next generation of cybersecurity professionals who will protect our digital future.”
Cheryl Bella is Cybersecurity Program Administrator, College of Engineering, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The article was originally posted to the website of UNLV.
