Sincere Cooper

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

Sincere is a junior at Mount Mary University in Milwaukee, where she is majoring in Cybersecurity with a minor in Business Analytics. She's taken most of the courses required for her major through Rize, with plans to round out her degree with Ethical Hacking and Security Operations.

Sincere originally started as a psychology major but lost passion for the field, realizing that "everything is kind of already written. You kind of have to learn it and you just apply what you learned. There wasn't any opportunity to bring in new or work on new things." When she began second-guessing her major during her freshman year, she found herself at a crossroads, as Mount Mary didn't yet offer the computer science program she had wanted to study.

The turning point came through MKE Fuse, a Milwaukee summer program where college students from various backgrounds collaborate to solve industry problems. There, she met Shadab, who explained cybersecurity and its growing importance in the workforce. "I thought that was interesting. When he explained to me very briefly what cybersecurity was... I was like, 'Okay, I can look into this a bit more.'" When Mount Mary added the cybersecurity program through Rize, she switched majors.

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

Sincere landed an internship at Astronautics Corporation of America, an aerospace company, through a chance encounter while working at Office Depot. A customer buying a whiteboard and markers turned out to be a cybersecurity professional. When she mentioned she'd just declared her major in the field, he said he was looking for interns. They connected on LinkedIn, interviewed over the summer, and she started the position in September 2023.

The overlap between her coursework and internship allowed her to put skills into practice in real-time:

Fundamentals and terminology: Starting her Intro to Cybersecurity course at the same time she began her internship provided an essential foundation. "The fundamentals, like learning what vulnerabilities are, learning the basic terms, malware and things like that, understanding the differences between different forms of threats" helped her communicate effectively with experienced professionals.

Data querying project: Her manager emphasized she'd need querying skills regardless of her cybersecurity path. She was tasked with consolidating data from company branches in Arizona, North Carolina, and a third location into a single spreadsheet. By applying the PowerShell skills from her Rize courses and attending office hours for extra guidance, she successfully queried and transferred the data.

KEV (Known Exploited Vulnerabilities) dashboard: Sincere also built a vulnerability dashboard using Tenable, a vulnerability management platform she'd learned in her courses. "Knowing the fundamentals really helped. Because you're going to be using new tools... knowing the terms helped me a lot."

Vulnerability management proposal: She took the initiative to research and propose Beyond Trust software for the company's asset management and vulnerability lifecycle needs. While the team didn't adopt it immediately, they revisited her proposal over the summer and eventually held a formal demo meeting with the company to explore it further.

Fresh perspective contributions: Even as an intern, Sincere found opportunities to offer insights to seasoned staff. During meetings about Power BI, she could offer insights: "They'd be like, 'Oh, we're not able to do this in Power BI.' And I'm like, 'That's because you're using the desktop version and you could be using the app or the web version.'" She was able to provide a new, first perspective to their established approaches.

How did this experience impact your career trajectory?

The internship transformed Sincere's confidence and career clarity. When she started, she felt uncertain about her contributions: "Coming in, I didn't know much, so it was hard. You kind of feel like, oh, I don't know much. My input doesn't matter." But as she applied her Rize coursework, everything shifted. "With those Rize courses under my belt, I had something I could offer, something I can build off of." Her first breakthrough came during a meeting about asset management software (Snipe IT), where she pushed for clarity on implementation. This confidence led her to research and present a vulnerability management proposal using Beyond Trust software—watching the team take her recommendations seriously showed her she belonged.

Beyond building confidence, the internship clarified her career direction. Working on the "Blue Team" (defensive cybersecurity), she discovered her passion for building rather than breaking. "I'd rather be the one making the structures or the infrastructure, seeing how strong it is. I want to make it durable, not test how durable it is." Her manager has supported this exploration by letting her try different areas like incident response, asset management, and PAM to find her specific focus.

Sincere credits, the flexibility of Rize courses of helping her pursue an internship during the school year. "If I was in a normal course where it's like in person all the time, I would not have been able to do my internship... I was able to complete my assignments, work about two to three days at an internship, and meet the required 20 hours weekly."

What's next for you?

Sincere just ordered the textbook to study for her CompTIA Security Plus certification — her first major goal as a junior approaching graduation. She wants to have at least two internships and two certifications completed before she finishes her degree.

She plans to continue with Astronautics for another year to deepen her expertise, while using Rize’s Career Navigation course to help finalize her specific path within defensive cybersecurity. She's also branching out beyond her major and broadening her technical skillset by taking Rize courses in Software Engineering and Computer Systems.