IT Advisory Board

Cybersecurity Center

Participating member organizations:

  1. Hawaiian Electric
  2. Partners in Development Foundation
  3. Servco
  4. Hawaiʻi Medical Services Organization (HMSA)
  5. Booze Allen
  6. Starwood Hotels
  7. Unisys
  8. NSA Hawaiʻi (NSAH)
  9. TEKsystems
  10. Apex Systems
  11. GJB & Associates
  12. Integrated Security Technologies (IST)
  13. Hawaiian Telcom
  14. First Hawaiian Bank
  15. Adapt Forward Cybersecurity
  16. Midori Web Designs
  17. Tech Connection
  18. Northern Aviation Services
  19. Hawaiʻi Tech Support
  20. Marriott International
  21. Central Pacific Bank
  22. Bayer U.S. – Crop Science
  23. Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC)
  24. HiTech Hui
  25. Blue Pacific Management, LLC.
  26. Pacific Guardian Life Insurance

Cyber Security has always been integrated into the Information Technology (IT) Program at Kapi`olani Community College (Kapiʻolani CC). Every student who graduates with an Associate in Science (AS) in IT at Kapiʻolani CC will take at least two courses in cyber security. The Certificate of Competence (CO) in Information Security and Assurance (ISA) is part of that AS in IT. Our application for the Center of Academic Excellence (CAE) in Cyber Defense (CD) is based on that certificate.

Every spring the IT Program has an IT Career Day, during which the Program’s faculty meet with members of the local IT industry, and some of our IT students meet with some of the advisory board members. Pre-COVID (PC), advisory board members would either sit on a panel to debate various topics which students would attend and/or provide students with a brief summary of their company, IT trends, expectations, and so on. In addition, IT internship students (usually students in the last class of their AS Degree) were required to conduct three mock interviews with three different IT Advisory Board members. Board members would either represent their respective companies or play the part of an interview committee member of another local company.

During these IT Career Day activities, advisory board members got to hear about where the Program was going, usually in response to the previous year’s meeting, but also as a result of other industry and University initiatives. Our administration and faculty got to listen to the needs and concerns of the advisory board. Students got to hear directly from members of the IT industry. Students got to practice their interviewing skills. And board members got a chance to know some of our students. During PC times, these “mock interviews” were conducted in a fast-paced “speed dating” type of environment. Once COVID hit, we pivoted to zoom interviews in which students and board members arranged and met via zoom to conduct these interviews.

Responses from students and board members alike were almost universally positive. While there was certainly some stress involved, it was all good stress, growing stress, and learning stress. As we enter a Post COVID era (hopefully) we plan to continue lessons learned during these difficult times: the use of zoom to conduct initial interviews is very common nowadays, so we will probably keep these), etc.; however, we will try our very best to conduct face-to-face meetings with our board members, with student attendance, as nothing beats the dynamics of physical meetings–the ability to respond to facial expressions, oral tonality, posture, and so on.

Below are links to various documents we created extemporaneously just prior to, during, and immediately after our IT Career Day/Advisory Board Meetings for the years 2019, 2020, and 2021.