Originally posted on Facebook on Monday, April 28, 2025.

We grow when we are sufficiently challenged, and this competition certainly stretched our students. As they encountered concepts they had never seen before, they wrestled with frustration and fear — but they rose to the challenge.

One by one, you could see the light bulbs come on as students shifted from "I don't know if I can do this," to "Hey, I can do this!" — and even better, "I want to do this!"

This is the pinnacle of education.

I want to give a huge thank you to Director @[1457223027:2048:Shelly Hollis], Professor Dr. George Trawick and their team with the MSU Center for Cyber Education and @[100070802282797:2048:Cce Msstate] for organizing such an impactful event, as well as to Martin Rivera and his team with the Mississippi Cyber Initiative for providing the technology infrastructure for the practice range and creating real-world challenges that helped move students from theory to application.

It was a great experience for our kids.

I'm incredibly proud of our students who went from no knowledge of cybersecurity analysis, then showed up, worked hard, and emerged as Champions of the first-ever MSU Cowbell CTF Cybersecurity Competition.

#GreenWaveJuniorTech #FutureTechLeaders #STEMeducation #WorkBasedLearning #UpgradeYourLife #CowbellCTF #Cybersecurity #Champions #TooMuchPoint #UpgradeYourLife