Cybersecurity student offers feedback on DHS experience

Southeast Missouri State University cybersecurity student Joe Surmeier is among select company.

The 21-year-old Kansas City, Missouri, native was selected for the Secretary's Honors Program Cyber Student Volunteer Initiative. His unpaid internship was with the Department of Homeland Security in his hometown.

He was among 70 interns, placed around the country, chosen from about 2,000 applicants.

"I couldn't have been happier," Surmeier said of his experience. "It was probably the best experience that was possible for me."

He added that he had good mentors.

One of about 10 people in the Kansas City office, Surmeier's position lasted from June to the first week of August. He helped track real-time threats to the Kansas City region.

"I did cyber-intelligence. It was open-source intelligence, so anything you can find on the Internet, basically, but there's a lot of stuff you can find on the Internet that's not supposed to be out there," Surmeier said.

Last week, Surmeier got a chance to meet some of the interns in the program and visit the Treaty Room of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House. He met with higher-ups from the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies for a feedback session on the internship program.

He said meeting his fellow interns was interesting because they had only interacted virtually before. It also allowed them to compare notes -- broadly -- on their experiences.

Although he and his fellow interns were interested in working for DHS, because this is a singular internship, Surmeier said there is no pathway program that leads to a higher-level internship or full-time job.

Surmeier started off as pre-med, but realized he didn't want to go to school much longer after his undergraduate work was complete.

"I'd always been interested in computers because there's amazing things you can do with computers that you have to figure out for yourself. It's not something you can look at and figure out -- all the inner workings and stuff. ... I'd also had a lot of exposure to computers growing up. My dad was a system admin and he did some network security in the '80s and '90s," he said.

"It showed me what the possibilities were," Surmeier added. He noted that most students in his major don't have the exposure to computers he has because they were too young.

"But having that growing up really helped," he said.

Vijay Anand, assistant professor in the cybersecurity program, said Surmeier had a great opportunity to work with DHS. But all his students are getting opportunities to work with a lot of different companies who would typically hire from top research universities nationwide. He said his students have done really well in their fields.

"Skill set-wise, our students do have pretty high-level skill sets," Anand said. "That's why they're getting hired and getting internships."

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