By Sean Flynn
Daily News staff writer
MIDDLETOWN — Colin McCabe, a senior in Rogers High School’s PTECH program, will be graduating in May with an associate’s degree in cybersecurity from the Community College of Rhode Island and graduating in June from Rogers with a high school diploma.
He earned both degrees within four years, taking full advantage of the opportunity that PTECH students have to complete courses at CCRI.
McCabe is the first local PTECH student to do this and enter a cybersecurity internship through a Southeastern New England Defense Industry Alliance program funded by a Real Jobs RI grant, said Alyssa Alvarado, program director of Real Jobs RI.
“But other students are right behind him,” she said. “They are in the pipeline.”
McCabe participated in summer courses and after-school programs to achieve his degrees. He started his internship at McLaughlin Research Corp. in Middletown the first week of February.
“It feels different from high school and college courses,” he said. “The internship takes my training to a whole different level. The experience is so great.”
Gov. Gina Raimondo remembered meeting McCabe three years ago as a PTECH student and she reconnected with him Wednesday morning during a tour of McLaughlin Research, a local defense company with a portfolio in many areas including mechanical engineering, information technology and system configuration.
During her tour the governor met several successful former SENEDIA interns funded through the Real Jobs RI initiative that she started in 2015 to better connect employers with a trained workforce. She said then it was part of her overall strategy to put Rhode Islanders back to work in jobs that can support a family.
The General Assembly cut $1.5 million in funding for the program last year and Raimondo is hoping that does not happen for the second year in a row. Her budget has allocated $14.1 million for the program in the coming fiscal year.
“Statewide, over 7,000 people have obtained jobs through Real Jobs RI since it started,” Raimondo said.
Raimondo talked with software engineer Corey Maroney and operations director Miranda Simpson, both employees of NeQter Labs LLC in Pawtucket.
They both had SENEDIA internships at McLaughlin Research Corp. before partnering with other former interns to establish NeQter Labs.
McLaughlin Research Corp. has had 47 interns come through the SENEDIA program and then hired six of them full-time. Another seven of those interns established NeQter Labs, which was funded by McLaughlin shareholders, said Vincent Pinto, McLaughlin’s president.
NeQter Labs is a spin-off from McLaughlin, but it is a separate corporation, he said. NeQter develops software that allows computer networks to meet federal cybersecurity regulations. Government contractors purchase the software.
The other McLaughlin interns have obtained jobs in other defense industries, many on Aquidneck Island, or at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Middletown, said Molly Magee, SENEDIA’s executive director.
“The interns come through my office,” said Chris Michaud, McLaughlin’s IT director. “They work in a real-lab environment on advanced threat analyses, vulnerability and other networking projects.”
Most of the interns are juniors and seniors in college programs, but now PTECH students can take advantage of the program.
“The CCRI cybersecurity program is one of the few community colleges in the country that has National Security Agency certification,” said Linda Larsen, education outreach director of SENEDIA.
“The interns all have the opportunity to get a security clearance during their internship,” Real Jobs director Alvarado said.
The federal security clearance is necessary for work on Department of Defense projects and obtaining the clearance can be a lengthy process, she said.
Magee said a total of 173 interns have participated SENEDIA’s internship program that is funded by Real Jobs R.I. grants.
Of those 173,140 have full-time jobs in the field. The remaining 33 are still in the program and Magee is confident they will be hired full-time soon after completion of the program.
“It’s been a very successful program,” she said.
SENEDIA has 130 member companies and participation in the internship program is open to all of them, Magee said. Up to 40 firms have used the program so far, she said.
SENEDIA places cybersecurity interns with the companies, but also places engineering interns, supply management and logistics interns and veteran interns, Magee said.
“We place interns in non-defense companies as well,” she said.
Scott Jensen, director of the state Department of Labor and Training, was on the tour and praised the success of the program.
“We form partnerships with institutions like SENEDIA and they come up with the ideas,” he said.