Kyle Hogan, the senior patrol leader of Troop 1547 in the Sully District, recently wrote an article for a new publication, SIGNAL Kids. He interviewed a cybersecurity expert for the magazine, which focuses on STEM topics for kids ages 8-12.
Kyle, who is a sophomore at Westfield High School and started his Scouting journey as a Tiger in first grade, spoke with Dr. Gil Duvall, president and CEO, Data Security Strategies, about his decision—at age 14—to work for NASA and how he made that dream into a reality.
“Writing an article about kids going into STEM careers was very enlightening. I learned a lot about the past of the STEM field, as well as indicators of the future and the state of the present,” Kyle said. “He talked about how following his dream of working for NASA led him to where he was today, and he serves as a very positive example of someone being dedicated to their craft in STEM and achieving wonders through it.”
Duvall also offered Kyle, who is interested in a career in cybersecurity and computer science, some career advice.
“Talking with Dr. Duvall was incredibly helpful. He gave advice for students going into STEM careers in terms of academic classes and extracurricular activities that were extraordinarily in-depth, which was helpful for the article and as well as for myself personally, as I plan on going into a STEM career,” Kyle said.
In the interest of full disclosure, Kyle’s mom works for AFCEA and SIGNAL Magazine, which published SIGNAL Kids. His mom’s colleagues were impressed with Kyle’s writing ability and expressed sadness that they had to cut out several words and make changes to the article to make it more readable for younger kids.
In SIGNAL Kids, a robot named Link and his sidekick Obo, which stands for “off by one,” guide readers through the publication. Topics of articles include the Internet of everyday things and how to stay safe online. One story refers to Star Wars lightsabers and lightning to explain how researchers found a way to help protect systems from hackers.
Check out Dr. Duvall’s and Kyle conversation below.
Go to url.afcea.org/SIGNALforKids to read the digital version of SIGNAL Kids.