Bailey Klote

How did you first hear about Rize, and why did you decide to take a Rize course?

Bailey is a sophomore at Morningside University who is majoring in cybersecurity and plays on the Women’s Basketball team. Bailey came into college with a budding interest in cybersecurity which started when her school district was hacked during her senior year of high school. "You could not use computers. You couldn't use smart boards. Everyone's information was getting taken and leaked... It took them like four or five months to even figure out who did it... That really jump-started my interest in the career."

Her advisor told her about Rize courses because Morningside doesn't offer cybersecurity in person. While she had a strong interest in the topic, she didn’t necessarily know what to expect in her Introduction to Cybersecurity course and was excited by the range of knowledge she was able to gain: “Even in the Intro class, we did some cool hacks, like, who's connected to like the Wi-Fi. It also showed me different pathways into cybersecurity.”

Since her Introduction to Cybersecurity course, Bailey has taken Cybercrime and Governance, and is currently in Modern Cybersecurity.

How did you apply your Rize skills outside of the classroom?

Mayo Clinic Cybersecurity Internship: Bailey started looking at internships as a way to figure out which specific paths within cybersecurity she is interested in, and secured a competitive cybersecurity internship focused on healthcare technology and medical instruments at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. During her interviews, she was asked questions about DHCPs, static/dynamic IPs, and MAC addresses, which she was able to answer easily and lean on the knowledge that she had gained through assignments in her Rize courses.

The same knowledge that helped her land the role continued to be relevant throughout the course of Bailey’s internship. When she was tasked to configure IP addresses and MAC addresses to different laptops and medical devices, she was able to put the concepts she had learned about into practice. “Seeing how classroom concepts translated directly into my internship was incredibly rewarding.”

Helping teammates avoid phishing: When Bailey's basketball teammates received suspicious emails requesting Gmail passwords, they immediately turned to her for help. She recognized it as a phishing attack from the examples she analyzed as part of her Rize coursework and warned everyone not to provide their information. One teammate had already entered her credentials, so Bailey walked her through the recovery steps: email Gmail, change the password immediately, and deactivate the account to prevent data theft. "It was interesting that I learned about this and actually helped people on my basketball team that I'm friends with figure out their problems with it."

How did this experience impact your career trajectory?

Bailey’s internship showed her she wanted to work in high-stakes environments where cybersecurity directly protects people and institutions. The experience she gained helping to protect medical infrastructure in a healthcare technology setting has opened up curiosity around other impactful environments. In one of her recent career assignments in Modern Cybersecurity, Bailey researched future job opportunities that interest her and discovered an interest in government roles. "I realized I would like to work with the Department of Defense or the CIA when I am older, possibly being a cyber analyst."

What's next for you?

Bailey has an upcoming interview for a cybersecurity internship with Mutual of Omaha, an insurance company. Her goal is to explore another type of cybersecurity application during summer in a new industry, and she's particularly excited to learn more about AI in cybersecurity, especially after seeing how realistic AI-generated content has become on social media.