NCSF’s 2024 Awards

The National Cyber Scholarship Foundation is delighted to offer scholarships for advanced cybersecurity training in 2024.

National Cyber Scholarship Semifinalist

All eligible high school or college students scoring at least 20,000 CyberStart points, through CyberStart America or Cyber FastTrack, will be awarded a digital Semifinalist badge at the end of the program.

Eligibility criteria:

• High school or college student in the USA

• Registered for CyberStart America or Cyber FastTrack 2023-24

• Minimum point score of 20,000 in CyberStart by January 11, 2024

• Returning students from any previous program year must continue to make progress in CyberStart in the 2023-24 cycle to qualify for this award.

National Cyber Scholarship Finalist

The highest scoring CyberStart players will be invited to complete a short scholarship application by the NCSF. Anyone shortlisted for this invitation will be awarded a digital Finalist badge once their application has been validated.

Eligibility criteria:

• High school or college student in the USA

• Registered for CyberStart America or Cyber FastTrack 2023-24

• Minimum point score of 20,000 in CyberStart by January 11, 2024

• Qualified as a Semifinalist, and shortlisted to complete a scholarship application, which is submitted by the deadline of January 30, 2024

National Cyber Scholar

The highest-scoring eligible CyberStart players who submit their scholarship application by the January 30, 2024 deadline will be awarded a scholarship to cover the SANS Foundations course and one attempt at the GIAC Foundational Cybersecurity Technologies (GFACT) certification, worth over $3000.

Eligibility criteria:

• High school (9th-12th grade) or college student in the USA

• Registered for CyberStart America or Cyber FastTrack 2023-24

• Minimum point score of 20,000 in CyberStart by January 11, 2024 - applicants will be assessed as a gathered field, so only the highest scorers will receive this status

• Qualified as a Semifinalist, and shortlisted to complete a scholarship application, which is submitted by the deadline of January 30, 2024

National Cyber Scholar with Honors

Students who earn the GIAC Foundational Cybersecurity Technologies (GFACT) certification through the National Cyber Scholarship Foundation (NCSF) Cyber Foundations Academy by the end of the 2024 Cyber Foundations Academy will be awarded the title “Scholar with Honors”, and may be offered the chance to apply for further scholarships to cover additional SANS training courses and certifications, and for specially selected internship opportunities.

This title can also be given to participants who have passed the GFACT certification in a previous year, and have met the conditions to be named a National Cyber Scholar again in 2024.

Eligibility criteria:

To be awarded the title of Scholar with Honors, students must:

• Complete and pass the GFACT exam by the end of the 2024 Cyber Foundations Academy, and obtain one of the highest scores within the National Cyber Scholar cohort (scores will be reviewed as a gathered field after the deadline)

• Students who are awarded the title of National Cyber Scholar in 2024, but have completed the GFACT certification prior to 2024, will also be considered for this award - they may be required to submit evidence of their GFACT exam score to support@nationalcyberscholarship.org (some scholarship awards can only be won once).

Partner scholarships

A number of additional scholarship awards and prizes may be available to CyberStart America or Cyber FastTrack program participants who meet eligibility criteria specified by the partner organization.

Details of these additional opportunities, and their eligibility requirements, will be published here throughout the year. More scholarships and awards may be listed here at any time up until the training programs close in January.

Students will automatically be considered for any award for which they meet the eligibility criteria when they submit a scholarship application, subject to providing consent for their personal information to be shared with the organization offering the award.

Partner prizes may be awarded to an individual in addition to the standard NCSF awards listed above.

Key dates