Officials at U.S. Army’s LOGSA welcome UAH CyberCorps scholarship students

LOGSA commander Col. John Kuenzli, center, welcomes UAH CyberCorps Scholarships for Service (SFS) students to the U.S. Army’s Logistics Support Activity (LOGSA) at Redstone Arsenal.

Michael Mercier | UAH

Eighteen CyberCorps Scholarships for Service (SFS) students from The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) met recently with personnel from the U.S. Army’s Logistics Support Activity (LOGSA) at Redstone Arsenal during the Army’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

“This meeting is important for two reasons,” said SFS coordinator Dr. Tommy Morris, who is an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and the director of UAH’s Center for Cybersecurity Research and Education. “First we are exposing the UAH SFS students and program to a new community on the arsenal, and equally important is that LOGSA wants to get to know our students as potential interns and future employees.”

Col. John Kuenzli, LOGSA commander, welcomed the students and remained for the duration of the meeting. LOGSA’s mission is to provide timely, accurate and valuable integrated life cycle logistics solutions, information, knowledge and expertise to enable army readiness and support unified land operations.

UAH is in year three of the five-year, $4.2 million National Science Foundation (NSF) CyberCorps Scholarships for Service program.

Cybercorps SFS students can get a leg up on cybersecurity hiring through the scholarship as they serve a paid internship during the summer semester in a government cybersecurity related position and fulfill a post-graduation scholarship obligation of one year of government service in a cybersecurity related position for each year of scholarship.

LOGSA may be an avenue to fulfilling those obligations for some SFS students, and Col Kuenzli said the Army values its student outreach.

“It’s important for us to instill a spirit of service in our young adults,” Col. Kuenzli said, “and to instill in them the opportunities that exist to serve the federal government and their nation in productive and innovative ways.”

Attending the Redstone Arsenal meeting were Cybercorps students Adam Alexander, Daniel Bernues, Joanna Burke, Ji Choi, Nick Christensen, Isaac Daniel, Joseph Drummond, Rob Hancock Jr., Todd Hastings, Josh Jones, Jennifer Lee, Justin Oakley, Chase Sweeney, Hope Walker, Nick Werline, Savannah Palmer, Austin Smith and Nathan Sissom.

Students in the program are awarded scholarships for two academic years (four semesters) for undergraduates and master’s degree students and for three years (six semesters) for doctoral students. A single student cannot receive more than one SFS scholarship.

The scholarships pay students’ full tuition, up to $3,000 reimbursement for health care insurance, up to $2,000 reimbursement for books related to class work, up to $4,000 for professional development travel, and stipends of $22,500 for bachelor’s degree students or $34,000 for graduate students during the academic year.

This year, the program has also expanded to include new partnerships with Snead State Community College, Northeast Alabama Community College, Calhoun Community College and the University of Hawaii.