In September 2022, IUP was awarded the largest grant in IUP history to create the PA Community College Consortium Cooperative Agreement (PC4A). For the last three years, PC4A partners have been working together to strengthen the cybersecurity workforce in our country. Based on the success of the project, PC4A has been extended for another year and will conclude in August 2026.
Waleed Farag, PC4A program director and director of the IUP Institute for Cyber Security, said, “We are extremely grateful to the US Department of Defense for offering us another year to continue our efforts. Since the start of the project, I have been continually impressed with what we have all been able to achieve together. Our partners are supporting students in a variety of innovative ways, and I am proud of what we have accomplished. I look forward to another year of collaboration as we work together to create a stronger, more skillful, and better prepared cybersecurity workforce.”
Current PC4A community college partners include Butler County, Montgomery County, Penn Highlands, and Westmoreland County. Previous community college partners also included Bucks County and Northampton.
In the fourth year of the project, partners will be offering scholarships, paid internships, certification-prep workshops, free certification exam vouchers, and many other student-supporting benefits. Partners will also focus heavily on establishing transfer agreements with local four-year institutions and identifying and/or strengthening relationships with Department of Defense/Defense Industrial Base agencies.
Visit the PC4A Project website for complete information, including upcoming events, project assessments, and previous activities. Contact pc4a-stem@iup.edu with any questions.