Working on the panel with NSU’s Sociology and Computer Science departments was an exciting and rewarding experience. This experience has not only helped me gain knowledge and insight about cybersecurity but has also helped me to re-evaluate my everyday life. For example, I’m a college student and the convenience of the internet makes me vulnerable to cyberattacks so, now I’m more cautious about when to use my personal information and to refrain from using auto-fill when entering important information online.

Strengths of working on the panel are, the research has helped me to network and gain personal relationships with faculty, staff, and my peers in the sociology department. This research assignment also helped me to understand and accept other people’s ideas and ways of thinking. An area that my team lacked in while on the panel was miscommunication. Our schedules were often conflicted during meeting times, but we went with the flow of things. With Dr. Perkins being my mentor and Dr. Hinds working alongside, in our spare time we would collaborate ideas to meet the panel’s deadlines.  

What I liked about this research assignment was distributing the survey to Dr. Holmes’ Introduction to Criminal Justice students. After explaining the purpose of the study to students it helped shed light on the awareness of cybersecurity and the Sociology department. Also, I really enjoyed presenting my research at NSU’s 2017 Undergraduate Research Symposium. With awesome deliverance of my research and findings, faculty, staff, and students appeared to be intrigued by asking questions.

All in all, I would like to give a big thank you to Dr. Perkins, Dr. Turner and Dr. Shen for giving me the opportunity to demonstrate what I’ve previously learned across the curriculum. The research assignment will help me along my career path and academic journey because I can use it to market myself to employers and use it to get into graduate school.