{"id":201517,"date":"2026-04-02T04:45:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T08:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/02\/cybersecurity-projects-at-colleges-and-universities-go-from-the-lab-to-the-people\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T07:05:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T11:05:13","slug":"cybersecurity-projects-at-colleges-and-universities-go-from-the-lab-to-the-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/02\/cybersecurity-projects-at-colleges-and-universities-go-from-the-lab-to-the-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Cybersecurity projects at colleges and universities go from the lab to the people"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cybersecurity projects at colleges and universities go from the lab to the people<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/cardinalnews.org\/2026\/04\/02\/cybersecurity-projects-at-colleges-and-universities-go-from-the-lab-to-the-people\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-04-02 04:45:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: cardinalnews.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: <\/a><\/p>\n

Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points. <\/p>\n

While workers at a water treatment facility keep their plant operating, a hacker has infiltrated the system, increasing chlorine levels to render the drinking supply lethal.<\/p>\n

The workers have to take quick action to keep the tainted water out of the public system while warning of the possible dangers.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all happening inside a case that\u2019s the size of a steamer trunk, with a Virginia Military Institute cadet wearing virtual reality goggles and tasked with thwarting the simulated attack.<\/p>\n

The scenario in a VMI lab is based on true events \u2014 multiple documented hacks into water treatment and other infrastructure systems in recent years, particularly a nearly successful Florida attack in 2021 that was meant to sicken a small town.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The exercise, using cadet-built equipment, is part of a range of simulation devices that VMI professor Mohamed Azab calls \u201csmart cities in a box.\u201d Seed funding for this and multiple projects on campus comes from the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative, Virginia\u2019s official hub for cybersecurity research, innovation and commercialization. Millions of dollars in funding and research partnerships flow from the initiative known as CCI.<\/p>\n

[What is CCI? Jump to the end of the story to read more about the initiative.]<\/p>\n

VMI has plenty of disciplined, intelligent cadets, but the school is not among the nation\u2019s 187 Carnegie Commission on Higher Education-classified R1 research institutions, like Virginia Tech, the University of Virginia\u2019s Charlottesville campus, George Mason University, Old Dominion University and Virginia Commonwealth University. That makes funding harder to come by, Azab said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But CCI counts 46 colleges and universities among those doing cybersecurity work, including at least 15 in Southwest and Southside Virginia, according to a report detailing five years of the initiative. Dollars flow to projects at all of them.<\/p>\n

VMI professor Mohamed Azab working with some elements of what he calls \u201csmart cities in a box,\u201d which researchers and cadets use for cybersecurity exercises. Photo by Tad Dickens.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very, very useful seed fund here in Virginia, especially for institutions of our size,\u201d said Azab, one of more than 300 affiliated faculty statewide. \u201cWe are not an R1 Institute, so it\u2019s not so easy for us to acquire funding unless you have a mature idea, and that mature idea needs some sort of seeding, and this is where CCI funding really helps.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article examines a few of the many CCI-related cybersecurity initiatives happening at several schools in the region: VMI, Virginia Tech, Radford University, Virginia Western Community College and the University of Virginia\u2019s College at Wise.<\/p>\n

VMI: Building virtual situations, gaining real-world experience<\/p>\n

VMI cadets, along with postgraduate degree candidates and Lexington-area high school students, have joined forces over the past few years to help build the simulator boxes used for cybersecurity experimentation and attack-defense scenarios, Azab said.<\/p>\n

The boxes include micro embedded computers that control the goings-on but can be breached. Cadets started with a smart house, and moved on to other projects that include the multi-stage water treatment facility. It took about three years to build it, mimicking industry standards.<\/p>\n

Cadet Trenton Watkins was there from the beginning. He was still a rat (a freshman, in military school parlance) whose upper-class mentor was part of Azab\u2019s group.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe developed a digital twin that mimics a real-life water treatment facility that users are able to interact with and learn how cyber attacks work on facilities and how they can differ with certain situations,\u201d said Watkins, of Bristol. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo we developed it as an educational tool, because critical infrastructure like water treatment is becoming more online and using more internet communications with their at-home systems, monitoring systems, so that opens a larger field for hacking capabilities for very bad people to get a hold of our water control, and that\u2019s something we need on a daily basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea is for the cadets to learn while developing such systems, then share their knowledge with people working in the field.<\/p>\n

VMI cadet Trenton Watkins crouches beside the institute\u2019s plastic-wrapped virtual water treatment plant, used for cybersecurity research. Photo by Tad Dickens.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got working on this about halfway through my rat year, and stuck with it \u2019til were able to get it working and publish papers on it and kind of present it to the world,\u201d said Watkins, who plans to get into cyber software engineering.<\/p>\n

Among the simulator\u2019s lessons: Human expertise remains key. In the event that a hacker manipulates gauges, preventing them from showing a dangerous chlorine increase, for instance, a worker needs to rely on senses of sight and smell, Azab said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHumans, while we are actually usually the weakest link in the loop and we are also always the easiest point for attackers to attack a system, we are also a very useful defense tool, right?\u201d Azab said. \u201cSo it\u2019s your experience. As an experienced person who worked in this facility for years, when you smell the chlorine, you will detect that there is something wrong. Yes, the meters on your screen are showing that everything is fine, but you know that there is something wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere at VMI\u2019s computer and information sciences department, a cadet-led project called NetSense won the CCI Tech Innovation Award in 2023, said another computer science professor, Sherif Abdelhamid.<\/p>\n

Netsense, which can predict the spread of malicious behaviors and viruses on communication networks, is now a limited liability company in Virginia, led by 2024 VMI graduate Colby Quigg.<\/p>\n

UVA Wise: Spreading security plans to local institutions, businesses<\/p>\n

Back in olden times, outlaws looking for cash grabs would put on masks, enter a bank, pull out their guns and rob the place. Violence was not out of the question.<\/p>\n

That still happens today, but there are more efficient, less deadly ways to get at the loot. Malware, ransomware, data skimming, transaction fraud, data breaches, phishing attacks and more are likely and disruptive.<\/p>\n

University of Virginia\u2019s College at Wise faculty Gurkan Akalin, chair of the college\u2019s Department of Business and Economics, and financial accounting instructor Ning Zhou discuss cybersecurity research they are conducting. Photo by Tad Dickens.<\/p>\n

A group of students from the University of Virginia\u2019s College at Wise used a CCI grant to analyze all the cybersecurity possibilities for a local bank, along with a county courthouse and a vineyard.<\/p>\n

It was one of multiple ways that UVA Wise students, with professors to guide them, have gained real-world knowledge while informing the college community on cybersecurity issues.<\/p>\n

Karen Carter, associate professor of information systems in the college\u2019s math and computer sciences department, said the project involved 10 students. They assessed the regionally owned Farmers and Miners Bank, the Wise County and City of Norton Circuit Court clerk\u2019s office and MountainRose Vineyard.<\/p>\n

Two of the three students who conducted that late 2024 assessment have since moved on to postgraduate studies.<\/p>\n

Kaylee Scarce is pursuing postgraduate work at Newcastle University, in the United Kingdom. Noah Sturgill is at Emory University, in Atlanta, studying for a Ph.D. in computer science and informatics, specializing in large language models.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know they were the cream of the crop, but they did a fantastic job on the project, and they were just very knowledgeable, and you could tell that they had done their research, in the questions they asked and so forth,\u201d said Shawn Moore, executive vice president and chief operations officer at the Pennington Gap bank, which has branches in Wise, Lee, Dickenson and Scott counties.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So learning that two of them were pursuing high-level postgraduate degrees \u201cdoes not surprise me a bit,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the bank\u2019s perspective, it was still very helpful from our side, even though maybe it didn\u2019t give us something new,\u201d Moore said. \u201cIt\u2019s always good to take another look under the covers at everything that you\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

MountainRose Vineyard\u2019s Suzanne Lawson said the business had a good experience with the students, who delivered a great presentation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, there were several areas they felt like we could improve on,\u201d Lawson said. \u201cAnd some of those we have worked on, and I\u2019ll be honest, some of them we haven\u2019t, just because we don\u2019t have staff to work on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sturgill, who participated in the vineyard\u2019s risk assessment as well, had associate degrees in cybersecurity, computer science and general studies from Mountain Empire Community College, near Big Stone Gap, before enrolling at UVA Wise to get his bachelor\u2019s degree in computer software engineering.<\/p>\n

University of Virginia\u2019s College at Wise graduate Noah Sturgill, now studying at Emory University in Atlanta, participated in cybersecurity assessments for a classroom project in the Wise area. Photo by Tad Dickens.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came in with a bit more of a background than most students,\u201d said Sturgill, a Wise native. \u201cFor me, personally, it was really an application of a lot of the things which I had previously learned.\u201d<\/p>\n

The assessments project was among three that were fully or partly CCI-funded, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought everything involved with it was very interesting, and it likely, at least partially, bolstered my resume to end up where I\u2019m currently at,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Carter, who with her husband farms black angus cattle and nubian goats, used her agricultural experience on another CCI-funded project. She and a colleague at UVA Wise did an assessment of Southwest Virginia farmers\u2019 knowledge and needs in agricultural cybersecurity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe determined that there was very little training going on within those counties and that there was a need to have more discussions with the farmers\u201d about using and protecting data related to breeding, tracking, medication, meat quality, fertilizer use and more, Carter said.<\/p>\n

Two of Carter\u2019s colleagues, financial accounting instructor Ning Zhou and Gurkan Akalin, chair of the Department of Business and Economics, are working on a new project fueled by a $60,000 grant they received last summer. They are working beyond the community boundaries to survey auditors who do remote work on their cybersecurity preparedness.<\/p>\n

About one-third of the grant has gone toward questioning between 350 and 400 auditors. Zhou and Akalin have published two papers on using advanced AI systems known as large language models to analyze threat intelligence in remote auditing. A big early answer: For now, LLMs\u2019 work is \u201cfuzzy,\u201d Akalin said.<\/p>\n

Karen Carter (left), associate professor of information systems at the University of Virginia\u2019s College at Wise, chats with MountainRose Vineyard\u2019s Suzanne Lawson. A group of Carter\u2019s students did cybersecurity risk assessments for businesses including MountainRose. Photo by Tad Dickens.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou ask one question, you get two answers at the same time,\u201d he said. \u201cOK, so if you get two answers, that\u2019s not good for accounting, that\u2019s not good for auditing. You just have to have one clear answer that is backed up.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we\u2019re just going a step beyond, not just saying that LLMs are not good, but how to make it work better. At what point that they can actually use it, because that\u2019s the direction. Guardrails is an important concept, meaning every step LLM is doing, we need to make sure that it is still following the process, the guidelines, and if it doesn\u2019t follow it, then we shouldn\u2019t\u201d trust the results.<\/p>\n

The technology moves fast, so they hope to have a portfolio of papers within the year, in hopes of addressing auditing education, practice, policy and compliance.<\/p>\n

\u201cEventually I think all the auditing guidance is going to include some of the cybersecurity,\u201d Zhou said. \u201cSo hopefully what our papers contribute will also inform the regulators how cybersecurity should be included as part of auditing. After I started working with Gerkan, I realized there is so much cybersecurity knowledge that, as accounting professionals, we just don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Virginia Western: Helping develop a necessary workforce<\/p>\n

About 700,000 cybersecurity jobs are unfilled nationwide, said B. Bagby, assistant professor of computer science and information technology at Virginia Western Community College.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a terrifying number, and it\u2019s doubled from what it was just a few years ago when we started talking about\u201d cybersecurity needs, Bagby said. \u201cAnd the problem isn\u2019t that there aren\u2019t applicants. The problem is that they\u2019re not getting hired.\u201d<\/p>\n

B. Bagby, a Virginia Western Community College professor and head of its Center for Cybersecurity Education, works with Josh Webster, a cybersecurity and networking student. Photo by Tad Dickens.<\/p>\n

Virginia Western\u2019s cybersecurity program graduates about 13 students annually. It\u2019s small, but shows steady growth from past years, Bagby said. There is a speed bump on the road from graduation to landing a job, though: They\u2019re leaving school with associate degrees.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have to fit very specific needs,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of fear, [although] it\u2019s finally starting to go away, of hiring folks that don\u2019t have bachelor\u2019s, master\u2019s, Ph.D.s in cybersecurity. That\u2019s been a real fight, to get the system to realize that maybe you didn\u2019t need to pay somebody $200,000 a year to check email logs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The college is working on getting a new CCI grant that would establish an internship program, in hopes of creating a pipeline from Virginia Western and other community colleges to good cybersecurity jobs, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA big part of the challenge that our students are having is that we\u2019re seeing folks cut back on hiring entry level workers, particularly AI and programming folks,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd a lot of that, I think, is because the education component can\u2019t quite keep up with the real-world experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bagby\u2019s department seeks out local tech companies that have received CCI grants to fund internships. One of them, Virginia Power Transformer, brought on a VWCC student recently.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The college has received its own CCI grants as well, he said. One allowed for stipends to students who created questions for Capture the Flag cybersecurity events, which feature a screen with complex questions that lead to other questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd pretty soon you find yourself tracking breadcrumbs through five or six different iterations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Writing the challenging questions requires technical skill, time and research. \u201cThat\u2019s great learning for those students,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The other grant funded a project with Radford University, focusing on home security, particularly the so-called \u201cinternet of things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo as you know, we\u2019re all buying these smart devices, whether it be a smart lock or a thermostat or light bulbs, but there wasn\u2019t a lot of security information on them,\u201d Bagby said. \u201cWe knew there were problems, but we hadn\u2019t done a whole lot of research. So with Radford, we did some of that research. We actually built out a small lab here in the cybersecurity lab and did some very simple research with students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the results was a guide for students to build their own virtual environment to test so-called IoT devices.<\/p>\n

Bagby continues looking for grant opportunities while teaming with tech companies that have received CCI money.<\/p>\n

Tim Shelton, a network engineer for Roanoke County, appears on a video screen discussing his experiences with a Radford University cybersecurity certification class for working professionals. Tom Bennett, seated at right, is a senior director at the university\u2019s Economic Development and Corporate Education Division, which coordinates the video course. Photo by Tad Dickens.<\/p>\n

Radford: Offering a chance to grow resumes<\/p>\n

Radford University\u2019s School of Computing and Information sciences wrote the CCI grant proposal that Bagby\u2019s team piggybacked on to use for its home security work. The grant also included learning opportunities for K-12 students in cryptography, forensics and ethics, along with teacher training.<\/p>\n

Another program Radford University developed with a CCI grant was a cybersecurity certification class for working professionals. Tim Shelton, a network engineer for Roanoke County, took advantage of some free learning through the program.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He and several colleagues signed up for the Foundations of Cybersecurity class, geared toward working professionals, which he began last year and has until August to complete.<\/p>\n

With a family at home and a full-time job, multiple weekly trips to campus would be out of the question, Shelton said. But the university records the classes in a studio and posts them for students to access at their own time and pace.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt helps me as a professional, because you have to take security as inherent in every decision you make,\u201d Shelton said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just one person\u2019s job. Everybody has to do it at every step of their job for it to be effective. So it\u2019s just a skill set that\u2019s going to stack on what I\u2019m already doing and ultimately make me a better technician.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cyberthreats lurk daily in Roanoke County government offices. Shelton is not a member of the county\u2019s cybersecurity team, but he interacts with it frequently.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most obvious [vulnerability] is compromised passwords and phishing,\u201d he said. \u201cThose are the two things that you\u2019re going to see prevalent and just non-stop all the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur cybersecurity team here does a really good job of training people up on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shelton said he is interested in cybersecurity, and the Radford course could get him a step closer to such a job. Either way, he\u2019s augmenting his skill set and at no personal risk, because it\u2019s free, he added.<\/p>\n

Among the challenges he\u2019s faced was learning structured query language, or SQL, which programmers use to get work done in databases.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not inherently a programmer,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s like a lot of puzzles I\u2019m having to solve to go through some of the labs there. So it\u2019s fun, but it is challenging because that\u2019s just not how my mind is geared to work. But I\u2019m getting there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Networking and penetration testing followed. He\u2019ll finish with a cyber defense course, then, having finished his certification, may sit for an exam to extend his credentials.<\/p>\n

Virginia Tech: A living-learning program focused on cybersecurity<\/p>\n

As the nexus of Southwest Virginia\u2019s CCI landscape, Virginia Tech has a lot of cybersecurity work going on. Students and researchers work on drone technology, global satellite networks, biosecurity, quantum cryptography, identity abuse and more.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a bit of reaching out to the rest of the student body, as well. Some of that comes from Securitas, the on-campus living-learning community, or LLC, that\u2019s focused on computer science, cybersecurity and similar majors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Securitas Living-Learning Community residents Gavin Neysmith (left), Jamie Osme\u00f1a and Securitas professor Arianna Schuler Scott discuss a cybersecurity exhibition they planned for March 2 at Virginia Tech\u2019s Newman Library. Photo by Tad Dickens.<\/p>\n

Over the past couple of semesters, a group of Securitas dorm residents came together to build an exhibit aiming to let their fellow students know more about the cyberworlds that have become such a big part of their lives. The group showcased it the evening of March 2 at Newman Library.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur audience are people, just undergraduate students in the building here who most likely don\u2019t have much technical expertise, who don\u2019t know much about cybersecurity, or maybe don\u2019t understand all the big terminology stuff,\u201d said Jamie Osme\u00f1a, a sophomore computer science major, during a planning session late last year.<\/p>\n

The students toyed with a few ideas, including one in which they would have installed a camera and a monitor to represent the idea of constant surveillance. Ultimately, they developed posters with graphic depictions showing multiple aspects of cybersecurity.<\/p>\n

Virginia Tech sophomore Andrew Kee, a Securitas Living-Learning Community resident, points to a display that some of the LLC members developed for a cybersecurity exhibit on March 2 at Newman Library. Photo by Tad Dickens.<\/p>\n

One poster showed all the dozens of permissions we agree to and mostly take for granted when using Instagram, Amazon, Reddit, GrubHub and LinkedIn. Another showed four books, including George Orwell\u2019s 1949 novel \u201c1984\u201d and Ann Leckie\u2019s \u201cAncillary Justice,\u201d from 2013.<\/p>\n

Gaven Neysmith designed most of the posters. Neysmith, a junior majoring in creative technologies, is a rarity in the Securitas dorm \u2014 he\u2019s not studying computer science. He said he missed the deadline to get into Studio 72, the art-centered LLC. Securitas was his second choice, but ultimately he decided to stay on beyond his freshman year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of feel like an oddball, but it\u2019s fine,\u201d Neysmith said. \u201cI\u2019m still interested in cybersecurity as well, so I feel like I fit in with everybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gavin Neysmith and Jamie Osme\u00f1a, students living in Virginia Tech\u2019s Securitas Living-Learning Community, discuss the cybersecurity exhibition that they presented on March 2 at Newman Library. Photo by Tad Dickens.<\/p>\n

Rishi Krishna, a senior computer science major, designed a poster that detailed the near ubiquity of cameras on campus. It included a ball cap called an \u201cinvisi-hat,\u201d rigged with LED lights that obscure your face from a camera. Hoodies can be rigged that way, too.<\/p>\n

Krishna said he occasionally finds himself in conversations with security-minded students about Flock cameras and what it would take to get on or off campus without being tracked.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean it\u2019s sort of idle discussion. \u2026 It always sort of sounds like we\u2019re planning crimes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Most of his fellow students take for granted that they\u2019re typically under surveillance. After all, theirs is the second generation to grow up since 9\/11 and the subsequent Patriot Act, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone knows it\u2019s happening,\u201d he said. \u201cNot many people think there\u2019s a serious chance of preventing it. And then a lot of people just don\u2019t even try because it\u2019s not, like, relevant to their daily lives. \u2026 People that are specifically interested in privacy, I think they also just expect that and they might be interested in the mechanics of how and why and maybe if they can sort of counteract it a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exhibit didn\u2019t earn the students a grade. They simply wanted to take part in it as a way to reach out to their peers, said Arianna Schuler Scott, a professor in the Pamplin College of Business who teaches and advises the Securitas students.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s like security is dead, unless it\u2019s alive,\u201d said Scott, senior associate director at the university\u2019s Integrated Security Education and Research Center. \u201cSo unless we\u2019re using it and applying the ideas, there\u2019s very little you can do in a classroom, where it\u2019s just a lecture. We can do some theory. But that\u2019s not what this class is for.\u201d<\/p>\n

What is the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative?<\/p>\n

Virginia\u2019s General Assembly created the CCI in 2018 and put Virginia Tech at the center of things.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Virginia Tech mathematics professor Gretchen Matthews leads the Southwest Virginia node of the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative. Photo by Tad Dickens.<\/p>\n

The law required the university to develop the initiative\u2019s blueprint, and the CCI\u2019s hub is at the Arlington-based Virginia Tech Research Center. A committee split the state into four regions, or nodes: Central, Coastal, Northern and Southwest.<\/p>\n

The overall idea, according to the law that created CCI, is to establish Virginia at the global forefront of cybersecurity, and diversify the state\u2019s economy by attracting investment and jobs. The initiative began its work in the 2020 fiscal year, with Virginia Tech cybersecurity professor Luiz DaSilva as its executive director.<\/p>\n

In the recently published \u201cState of CCI: 5 Years of Impact,\u201d the initiative says it has sparked 2,517 jobs that brought in $196 million in labor income and added $367 million to Virginia\u2019s gross domestic product. Funding has grown each year, with CCI\u2019s fiscal year 2025 report showing 159 grants totaling $84.5 million to support research, workforce development and innovation. Federal agencies accounted for 128 of the grants, while 31 came from what CCI termed state and industry partners.<\/p>\n

Southwest Virginia institutions received 46 grants totaling $23.4 million through CCI.<\/p>\n

Virginia Tech mathematics professor Gretchen Matthews leads the Southwest Virginia node, centered at the university\u2019s Blacksburg home. She juggles her academic role \u2014 leading a research team that spends significant time on data protection \u2014 with her administrative one.<\/p>\n

Matthews said her node develops programs to support students, faculty and researchers in the region who are involved in cybersecurity research, workforce development and innovation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to engage as many people as possible, meaningfully, in cybersecurity development,\u201d Matthews said.<\/p>\n

That includes programs for undergraduates and high school students.<\/p>\n

CCI doesn\u2019t disclose individual award amounts, but in general, awards range from $15,000 to $100,000, according to Madison Boswell, program manager for CCI\u2019s Southwest Virginia Node. The grants are designed to serve as seed funding to help establish a program, which can then work to secure other money, Boswell said in an email exchange.<\/p>\n

[Jump back to the top of the story.]<\/p>\n

\tRelated stories<\/p>\n

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