Of all the networking opportunities that Alejandra Diaz got as part of Cyber Scholars — a cybersecurity program at University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) — the one that proved most pivotal is when she got invited to lunch with university president Dr. Freeman Hrabowski and Wes Bush, CEO of aerospace and defense giant Northrop Grumman.
“It was surreal to meet such important people, and I am lucky enough to say that they are now part of my professional network,” says Diaz.
The meeting ended up being more than a chance to rub shoulders with the heads of the university and a global security firm.
Rather, the encounter afforded Diaz — who immigrated to the United States at age 5 from Peru with her parents with “virtually nothing” — the chance to speak about her experience and her quest for an internship.
“With that, I was given an interview later on and got an internship at Northrop Grumman,” Diaz recounted.
Since then, Diaz has interned twice at Northrop Grumman, where she was part of two internal research and development teams that worked on several cyber projects.
