Jan Carlos Bello (New Brockton High) selected as first student in Cyber program

Jan Carlos, a senior from New Brockton High School was selected as the first student to represent the LeBlanc Foundation in the Space and Missile Defense Command Cyber program. Jan will help mold the program as he goes through the curriculum, through feedback to his mentors at the University of Alabama Huntsville.

Jan was selected into this program, because he was a hardworking and outgoing high school student who was interested in becoming a civil engineer. His dad has a small construction business, and he started going to work with him in his early teenage years. While Jan wanted to learn more about construction and building residential and commercial building, houses, etc, he expressed interest in the SMDC program. He wanted to experience the cyber side of things, to see what other options were out there for him. At the time, he was not really sure if he could complete the curriculum, because he had not studied in any of the cyber areas.

Jan had a great work ethic, which was a great strength. He is a leader, a creative writer, and is bilingual. He held a 3.5 GPA, and was in several honors classes, to include English, History and Chemistry. During his interview, it became obvious that he could help mold the curriculum for the future program participants.

After being hired as a student research analyst at the University of Alabama Huntsville, Jan spent almost a year going through the program, providing much needed feedback on the topics, including how long it took to do the modules, and how difficult the modules were. His efforts were instrumental in the development of the current curriculum.