South Hills sponsors hacking event

South Hills School of Business & Technology Altoona Campus recently sponsored a Cybersecurity Capture-the-Flag Hacking event.

Students from South Hills, Penn Highlands Community College Blair Center, Greater Altoona Career & Technology Center and other local schools participated together at this event.

CTFs are online digital scavenger hunts based around solving cybersecurity puzzles and competing to find the most “flags” purposely hidden throughout the internet.

Event organizer Guido Santella, lead Information Technology & Software Development instructor at South Hills Altoona, said, “It was great to see the interest in cybersecurity from our area and how hard these students worked to solve the technical challenges. We had a diverse group ranging from middle school students to working professionals all collaborating to learn cybersecurity skills. And in our first ever competitive CTF, our combined team placed 464th out of more than 2,000 teams from around the world.”

A replay of the beginner-level CTF will be held at Hacktoberfest 2024 at SouthHills from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct 19. This free event includes food, drinks and prizes.

More information can be found at: https://www.southhills.edu/hacktoberfest/

Auditor general celebrates Intern-to-Hire

HARRISBURG — Auditor General Timothy L. DeFoor recently welcomed Altoona native Lindsay Mitchell as the department’s newest auditor from the Intern-to-Hire program.

Mitchell graduated from Penn State World Campus with a bachelor’s in accounting in May 2024.

“Our Intern-to-Hire program is a common-sense approach to creating career pathways for Pennsylvania students to work and stay in the Commonwealth,” Auditor General DeFoor said. “Students like Lindsay are the future of our department, and we couldn’t be happier to have her expertise on our team.”

“I am immensely grateful for the opportunity to continue working with the department, and I hope to continue serving the people of the Commonwealth for many more years,” Mitchell said.

The Intern-to-Hire program creates a pathway to full-time employment for students and recent graduates from Pennsylvania colleges and universities and community colleges. To be eligible for the Intern 2 Hire program, students must be:

n Current enrollment as an undergraduate student in an accredited college/university in a declared bachelor’s degree program in accounting, business, data analytics, finance, economics, math, or a closely related field and successful completion of at least 60 college credits at the time of the internship with a minimum 2.5 GPA; or

n A recent graduate (within six months of the internship commencement) of an associate degree program at an accredited college/university with an area of concentration in accounting, business, data analytics, finance, economics, math or a closely related field and a minimum 2.5 GPA; or

n Current enrollment as a graduate student in an accredited college/university in a declared master’s or doctorate degree program in accounting, business, data analytics, finance, economics, math or a closely related field and a minimum 2.5 GPA at the time of the internship; and

n Someone who is passionate about their area of focus and public service, who is detail-oriented with curiosity and a desire to learn.

Different internships are available for students graduating with a bachelor’s or associate’s degree.

For more information about career opportunities or the Intern-to-Hire Program, visit www.paauditor.gov/work-with-us and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.