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Federal Cyber Service:
Scholarship For Service (SFS)

Student Placement Issues:
Exploration of the Solution Space

A report from a NSF workshop
held August 5 -6, 2003.

Home
I. Executive Summary
II. Introduction
III. Actions Taken in
Response to Problem
IV. Recommendations
APPENDIX 1:
Meeting Participants

APPENDIX 2:
SFS Program Statistics

APPENDIX 3:
Agencies That Have
Hired SFS Students
NSF Disclaimer and
Contact Information
 

I. Executive Summary

The Federal Cyber Service: Scholarship for Service (SFS) program seeks to increase the number of qualified students entering the fields of information assurance and computer security and to increase the capacity of the United States higher education enterprise to continue to produce professionals in these fields. The program has two tracks, Scholarship and Capacity Building. The workshop, SFS Student Placement Issues: Exploration of the Solution Space, focused on problems associated with placing students participating in the Scholarship Track described below:

The Scholarship Track provides funding to colleges and universities to award scholarships in information assurance and computer security fields. Scholarship recipients will become part of the Federal Cyber Service of information technology specialists who ensure the protection of the U.S. Government's information infrastructure. Upon graduation after their two-year scholarships, the recipients will be required to work for a federal agency for two years in fulfillment of their Federal Cyber Service commitment.

The service agreements that each scholarship student signs with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) states that upon graduation if a Federal position has not been made available, the student is then released from any obligation to the program. SFS students are selected partially based on their desire to go to work for the Federal government. The university principal investigators, OPM, and NSF in partnership are all very motivated to make these placements happen. Heroic efforts on all sides to date have resulted in a placement rate well over 90%. A concern over the ability of the program to maintain and improve on this high placement rate as the program continues to grow was the primary force behind this workshop.

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