On April 5, Christian Martin was recognized with two awards for his work at the College of Business’ Honors Day.
Martin was one of two students who received at least two awards and was grateful to earn them, stating, “It feels great to see hard work throughout the years paying off! To be recognized by the college is an incredible honor, but I couldn’t have done it without the support of my faith, family and friends. We have an amazing group of students within the college, and so I am deeply thankful that I was chosen to receive my awards.”
Martin also spoke about his experience in the College of Business, highlighting faculty and staff, career advancement opportunities and academic learning experiences as notable components of the college. “My personal experience within the [information systems] cyber program has been one of tremendous academic growth. With opportunities like the newly opened cyber lab, I was able to get hands-on with cyber elements like hubs, switches and servers, that normally are only seen within textbooks,” he explained. Martin also described his program’s application-driven curriculum by recalling one of his favorite memories: taking the IS 577 Network Defense & Security course with DJ Hovermale. “Usually when you think about class projects, they are simply tedious assignments to check off. However, with DJ’s class, our final project was to perform vulnerability assessments and penetration test reports on a mock “box” hosted on a virtual machine. It was an in-depth learning experience that put students on the front lines of [a] hypothetical cyber battle.”
Beyond studying at UAH, Martin is a member of the leadership team for the philanthropic event, Battle of the Buffalo. The event is held in memory of Paul Salmon, a UAH student who died in 2007 due to acute myeloid leukemia. Regarding his involvement in the Battle of the Buffalo, Martin said, “It takes nearly all year to plan the event that takes place in downtown Huntsville at Big Spring Park, but the results are always worth it when we are able to donate all the money to Russel Hill Cancer Foundation, Clearview Cancer Institute and Hudson Alpha.” Martin has contributed to the event for two years, and his team has raised nearly $70,000 in that time.
After graduating from UAH, Martin will go to Charleston, South Carolina to intern at the Naval Information Warfare Center as a security control analyst; it will be the second time he interns there. However, he will return to Huntsville to pursue a Master’s degree in cybersecurity.
