Sophia Salome, a junior double majoring in criminal justice and political science with a minor in cyber criminology, is spending her summer in the Washington D.C. area as an intern at the Homeland Security’s Office of Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security (CISA).

In this role, Salome is actively involved in CISA projects such as the School Safety Task Force’s National Summit and data and technical analysis with the Office of Bombing Prevention. In particular, the agency is developing social media campaigns to promote the agency to college students. Salome’s superiors welcome her unique viewpoint of college life for this project.

While applying knowledge from her UA classes and gaining real-world experience through her internship, Salome most enjoys the interactions with the agency directors and staff. These interactions have provided her with insights into the digital forensics career she is pursuing as well as building relationships with experts in the field.

Salome’s internship opportunity arose in conjunction with her participation in the CyberCorps Scholarship for Service program at UA (SFS@BAMA). SFS@Bama is a trans-disciplinary scholarship program seeking to recruit and train the next generation of cyber security-related professionals from well-rounded UA scholars.

In addition to her academic pursuits, Salome is the current United States of America’s Miss Alabama and will compete in the national pageant in February. She is involved in the Pi Beta Phi sorority and served on the Mock Trial Team. Salome will return to UA in the fall where she has been accepted into the UA Graduate School’s Accelerated Master’s Program in criminal justice.