Image above: NCDIT Chief Deputy Torre Jessup at North Carolina A&T University on March 11, 2025.
Investing in North Carolina's students continues to be one of NCDIT’s top priorities, and the department’s leadership and other team members engaged with bright young minds throughout the state in March.
NCDIT Secretary Teena Piccione and Chief Deputy Torre Jessup participated in a ribbon-cutting for Catawba Valley Community College’s new Valley Datacenter Academy sponsored by Microsoft on March 4. Through this workforce development program, Microsoft will collaborate with CVCC to train students for skills and certifications in cloud computing, cybersecurity and IT.
They then traveled to Appalachian State University's Hickory campus where they joined an ethical hacking class and talked with students in the Walker College of Business at Appalachian State University's cybersecurity lab, as well as met with college staff to learn more about their work to support students entering the cybersecurity field.
Jessup also joined students at North Carolina A&T State University as a guest speaker for their Honors College lecture series on March 11, discussing the responsible use of AI. He highlighted his own career path and opportunities available at NCDIT and encouraged students to consider how they can make a difference for our state.
Students from North Wake College and Career Academy toured the Eastern Data Center in Raleigh on March 12. Data center staff led them in a hands-on exercise building network cables and talked with them about IT career opportunities.
The N.C. 911 Board hosted Duke University students as part of the university’s Spring Forward program during the week of March 10-14, which gives students from lower-income backgrounds hands-on working experience.
Piccione returned to Catawba Valley Community College on March 14 to serve as the keynote speaker for the Carolina Cyber Network Spring Convening and highlight the importance of building a strong cybersecurity talent pipeline for North Carolina.
The Carolina Cyber Network (CCN) aims to build a job-ready workforce and improve cybersecurity resilience statewide. It is a collaborative effort among academia, industry and government to develop a robust talent pipeline through applied learning, work-based experiences and professional development.
On March 17, Piccione toured the engineering facilities and labs at Campbell University and spoke to engineering students receiving the university’s Core Values Awards.
Four NCDIT team members joined the Future Innovators Symposium for Wake County Public School students in Fuquay-Varina on March 21—Khadishah Nicholson, applications systems analyst, Environmental Quality; Mac Clark, director of development, Digital Solutions; Srinivas Sunkara, director, Enterprise Applications; and Yori Lucien, NCDIT internship coordinator and recruiter.
The symposium introduced more than 300 students to STEM opportunities, focused on renewable energy and sustainability, through interactive sessions, an engineering challenge and a career fair.
That day, Fayetteville Technical Community was visited by Piccione; Keith Briggs, director, Enterprise Architecture and Innovation; Hugh Harris, general counsel; Alysa Kelly, executive assistant; Shaun Osbourne, senior technical recruiter; and Trip Stallings, executive director, N.C. Longitudinal Data Service.
They toured the college’s facilities and talked with students who shared about their experiences in the Cyber Safe internship program. They also told students about pathways to apprenticeships with state government and the right certifications and education to qualify for state government positions.
Briggs met with more than 300 students of all majors at the Appalachian Information Technology Professionals student club at Appalachian State University on March 26. He gave an overview of NCDIT, talked about summer internships and early-career IT job opportunities and answered questions about how to get a job.
NCDIT is dedicated to sparking interest in tech careers and investing in workforce development initiatives to build a strong future for our state’s IT industry.