The upperclassman CyberPatriot team at Kennedy High School has been awarded the New York State Championship in the Air Force Association CPXIII competition, placing 60th in the nation out of 2,633 teams.

This year, both Kennedy High School CyberPatriot teams earned spots to compete in the Platinum Tier.

“Our students studied windows and Linux operating systems and completed online coursework in the CISCO Net Academy while learning how to use industry networking software such as packet tracer,” explained Robert Soel, district science chairperson and STEM chairperson.

The CyberPatriot teams of students from Kennedy excelled in the qualifying rounds, demonstrating teamwork, critical thinking skills, and technical knowledge key to a successful career in cybersecurity.

“Our sophomore team had an impressive run as well and placed in the top 11 percent of the teams in the nation,” he added.

CyberPatriot’s core program – the National Youth Cyber Defense Competition – challenges teams of students across the United States, Canada, and other schools abroad, to find and resolve cybersecurity vulnerabilities in simulated environments. In all, over 4,800 teams registered to compete in CyberPatriot XIII.