NW Cyber Camp launches fourth year


NW Cyber Camp, which our team at McKenzie Worldwide has been proud to have a been a part of since it’s inception, inspires and empowers high school students to learn about cybersecurity, opening up the possibility of a career in the field. Since 2016, NW Cyber Camp has reached hundreds of high school students, offering hands-on cybersecurity skills, including defending computer systems from hackers and implementing defensive cybersecurity practices. This year marks the fourth year of the program, taking place July 15-July 19, 2019, with five camps across Oregon, including a girls’ camp plus a new advanced camp this year:

  • Girls’ Camp, 621 SW 5th Ave, Portland, OR (Meier & Frank building)
  • Co-Ed, Center for Advanced Learning, 1484 NW Civic Drive, Gresham, OR
  • Co-Ed, Mentor Graphics, 8005 Boeckman Rd, Wilsonville, OR
  • Co-Ed, Oregon State University, Corvallis OR
  • New Advanced Camp, July 22-July 26, 2019: Center for Advanced Learning, 1484 NW Civic Drive, Gresham, OR

For more information and to register: www.NWCyber.camp.

NW Cyber Camp

NW Cyber Camp addressing skills pipeline problem

“Cybersecurity is one of today’s hottest technical fields. Oregon alone has 2,911 unfilled job openings in cybersecurity,” according to Charlie Kawasaki, co-founder of NW Cyber Camp, vice chair of the Oregon Cybersecurity Advisory Council (OCAC) and chief technical officer of PacStar. “The latest research indicates that it takes an average of three to six months to fill a cybersecurity job. We are working on the pipeline problem – we are working to get more people interested in cybersecurity at an earlier age, and more people trained.”

The original co-founders of NW Cyber Camp (formerly known as PDX Cyber Camp) include Charlie and his daughter, Amelia Kawasaki, and Zander Work, who created the camp in 2016 to inspire youth towards careers in cybersecurity. While she was in high school, Amelia was one of the cybersecurity camp’s instructors and heavily involved in the girls’ camp, featuring leading female guest speakers and instructors for a tailored program for young women interested in STEM careers. The cybersecurity experience and skills that she gained at the camps led her to software engineering and data science internships with Formaltech and Cylance. Amelia is currently pursuing a degree in Data Science at the University of California, San Diego. Zander was also a camp organizer and instructor; and is currently pursuing a degree in Computer Science at Oregon State University. He is the president of the award-winning OSU Security Club.

Amelia Kawasaki (in yellow) one of the co-founders and instructors of NW Cyber Camp

Sponsors of NW Cyber Camp 2019 include PacStar (title sponsor), Facebook, Mentor Graphics, McAfee, HP, Galois, and Splunk. McKenzie Worldwide played a major role in promoting and launching NW Cyber Camp, including designing the camp’s logo and driving extensive media coverage about the effort across the Pacific Northwest.



Megan McKenzie

Author: Megan McKenzie

Megan McKenzie provides strategic leadership to McKenzie Worldwide and the agency’s work with technology companies in enterprise, consumer, wireless, networking, & cybersecurity.