Spotsylvania High School Student to Keynote National Cybersecurity Conference
Jake Goodman has been become a top hacker in the country, and is poised to talk about cybersecurity education in Nashville this December.
By Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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There’s a standing joke among people over 40 — if you’re having trouble with anything related to computers, find the youngest person in the room.
This December in Nashville, the NICE K12 Cybersecurity Education Conference will be calling on one of the younger people in the room to deliver a keynote address. And local wunderkind Jake Goodwin is the person conference leaders will ask to speak.
Selected from some 50 potential students across the country, Goodwin won over the committee selecting the student keynote speaker with a resume that some twice his age would envy.
A senior at Spotsylvania High School, Goodwin has already earned both GFAC and GSEC certifications. The former recognizes basic knowledge of cybersecurity; the latter that one is qualified for hands-on IT systems roles with respect to security tasks.
Last year, Goodwin was one of eight U.S. students selected to attend the Quad Cities Challenge at the White House. The international Quad Cyber Challenge was launched in 2023 by the four Quad partners—Australia, India, Japan, and the United States—with the goal of “strengthen[ing] responsible cyber ecosystems, promot[ing] public resources, and rais[ing] cybersecurity awareness,” according to a joint press release from the four countries.
He also earned one of the highest scores in the region in CyberStart, a gamified cybersecurity learning platform. And he has served as a teaching assistant for Virginia Tech’s GenCyber educator camp.
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