Cecilia Pohlar

School/Division	Division of Information Technology & Sciences
Class	2021
Pronouns	She/Her/Hers
Home State	Indiana

Internships

Leahy Center for Digital Forensics and Cybersecurity in Burlington, VT; Vermont Mutual Insurance Group in Berlin, VT; and Department of Defense in Charleston, SC

Favorite Class

Malware Analysis

Post-Grad Job

Department of Defense in a Digital Forensics & Cybersecurity

What do you like about your program?

The biggest thing I love about my program is the candid relationship we all have with each other. Professors don’t hold back in telling you when you haven’t done good work, but they also take every opportunity to congratulate and build you up when you do well. My classmates and I all cheer each other on so much when we get that job we wanted or get to speak at a big conference. I think that family aspect is something a lot of other schools miss out on.

What projects have you worked on in classes that you’ve found particularly rewarding or useful?

The open-ended projects I’ve worked on in my Digital Forensics classes have been the most beneficial to me. Professors will often give us full investigations to perform, which have increased in difficulty throughout the years. They hand us an image of a system and tell us to figure out what’s there and write a report on it. They don’t hold your hand through it. This is what real life will look like for us as Digital Forensics Analysts, and I’m so thankful I’ve already had so much experience with it just at Champlain.

What are your plans after graduation?

After graduation, I will be moving to South Carolina to work with the Department of Defense in a Digital Forensics and Cybersecurity position. I actually received the offer for this position as part of the Department of Defense Cybersecurity scholarship program at the end of my sophomore year, so I’ve known my after-graduation plans for almost two years now.Champlain is one of a limited number of colleges and universities across the US which offer this scholarship to students in our field. I’m beyond thankful to have been chosen for this scholarship along with a few of my classmates, and am really looking forward to starting my career in federal service.