Hudson County Community College Earns Insight Into Academia 2025 ‘Inspiring Programs in STEM’ Award
June 3, 2025
The College’s Cybersecurity Mentoring Programs is designed to close the gender gap, foster innovation, and build an equitable workforce.
June 3, 2025, Jersey City, NJ – “Penelope Garcia” was a hacker-turned-FBI cybersecurity pro in the television drama
Criminal Minds. But today, women make up only 20% of the United States cybersecurity workforce.
To help reverse this trend, Hudson County Community College (HCCC) devised the Cybersecurity
Mentoring Program to recruit and retain women in the HCCC Associate in Science in
Cybersecurity degree program, where 19% of the 199 current students are female.
The HCCC Cybersecurity Mentoring Program is the recipient of the 2025 “Inspiring Programs
in STEM” Award from Insight Into Academia Magazine, the largest and oldest diversity and inclusion publication in higher education.
The award measures an institution’s individual programs and initiatives that encourage
and support the recruitment of women and traditionally underrepresented students to
pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields.
The Hudson County Community College Cybersecurity Mentoring Program, designed to increase the number of women working in the growing cybersecurity field, earned the 2025 “Inspiring Program in STEM” Award from Insight Into Academia Magazine. Pictured here, an HCCC student and mentor in one of the College’s STEM labs.
“Our Cybersecurity Mentoring Program creates a greater sense of belonging and provides a support network for women to narrow the gender gap and the skills shortage in this growing field,” said HCCC President Dr. Christopher Reber. “Mentors share their experiences and insights, information about internships, career opportunities and networking, and encourage mentees to stay on track. Mentees build confidence, overcome challenges, solve problems, and learn to navigate a work/life balance.”
HCCC cybersecurity alumnae Asma Daif Allah, Raida Al Hattab, Gabriela Melendez, and Alexandra Velez participated in professional development to mentor student program participants. The student-to-mentor ratio is five to one. Mentors meet with their assigned students at least twice a month while hosting group sessions. The program’s effectiveness will be assessed through student surveys, feedback sessions, and students’ progress.
“We know that STEM programs are not always recognized for their dedication to inclusion, equity, and access,” said Lenore Pearlstein, owner and publisher of Insight Into Academia. “We are proud to honor these college, university, and industry STEM programs as role models for other institutions of higher education.”
The HCCC Associate in Science degree in Cybersecurity curriculum provides instruction in computer programming on the application and system levels, an understanding of computer hardware organization and architectures, and a working knowledge of network security, cybersecurity, data communications and local area networks. Program graduates are prepared for transfer to four-year institutions to complete bachelor's degrees in Computer Science, Mathematics, or related fields.
More information on the program is available by clicking here.