Congratulations are in order for TECBio alumni Bekah Jenkins, who has been commissioned into the US Navy as a Cyber Warfare Engineer (CWE). In her upcoming work, she’ll be developing tools used for computer network exploitation and defense in cyberspace operations (i.e. “hacking”). She will be the tenth ever woman to become a CWE in the US Navy.

In her time between TECBio 2020 and her upcoming appointment with the US Navy, Bekah has engaged in many exciting ventures. For most of her undergraduate career, she pursued medicine with plans to join the military Health Professions Scholarship Program. Realizing she was unhappy on the pre-med path, she switched her major to Computer Science senior year, but was still interested in going into the military. This led her to discover different officer positions that the Navy offered that matched her background and interests, such as the CWE position.

Bekah needed to do an extra summer and fall semester of school to accommodate the late major switch, but she used that time to pursue an internship with Astrobotic as a simulation software summer intern. Astrobotic’s first mission, Peregrine Mission 1, is set to launch this year with the moon as its destination. If it successfully lands, Bekah’s name will be on the moon! She continued with Astrobotic as an intern in the fall and then as a full-time employee while continuing the CWE application process. This process included passing a 48-hour capture the flag challenge, consisting of computer security puzzles and challenges. Bekah passed the technical interview for CWE at the end of January and was officially commissioned in May. She is about to begin Officer Development School where she will train for a few months before being stationed in September.

Bekah remembers her time with TECBio fondly, calling it the launchpad for her whole journey. She says, “It opened up so many opportunities for me- having research experience from an REU was a big part of me getting the internship at Astrobotic, which then led to this job in the Navy.” She is also grateful for the tools and problem-solving skills she developed at TECBio, and the wonderful mentorship of our program director, Dr. Joseph Ayoob, who helped her through the difficult time of deciding whether to switch majors before her senior year.

As she looks forward to beginning her CWE position, Bekah is excited for the opportunity to serve and apply her computer science degree in a cool way that is meaningful to our world. We wish Bekah all the best in this very exciting new adventure and chapter in her life!