​A group of students at Nashwaaksis Middle School are first place winners in cybersecurity in Canada.

After four rounds of competition, CyberDragons 1 (Nayan Orfei, Liam MacDougall, Matthew Golden, Stewart Catt, and Anthony Cruickshank) were the top competitors in the CyberPatriot XII semi-final round, demonstrating teamwork, critical thinking, and technical skills needed for a successful career in cybersecurity. 

The team’s performance earned them first place in Canada n the middle school division and a spot in the high school Cyber Titans national competition to be held in Ottawa in the spring.

"The Nashwaaksis Middle School team members have spent the last eight months preparing for the competition by going through the training modules provided by CyberPatriot," said teacher Gary Gautreau. "They sourced this information on their own and succeeded with guidance from their team mentors Rory Bray, Jamie Wheaton and Josh Ryan."

Nashwaaksis Middle School also took third place in the semi-finals. CyberDragons 3 (Lauren McConnell, Mallory Daamen, Brianne McAllister, Jessica Thomas, Simone Dickeson and Brooklyn Crockett) are the first ever "all girls" team to finish in the top three at the national level.

CyberPatriot is a national youth cyber education program created to inspire students toward careers in cybersecurity or other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines critical for the future and digital economy.