My name is Brooklyn Holthaus. And this is my Augusta University story. I'm from Granville, Ohio. It's a small village. My sister has done a really good job kind of paving the road for me when she was in gymnastics, I wanted to be in gymnastics, and then she went to volleyball and I wanted to be in volleyball. So it's just really fun having her to kind of look up to. I didn't know much about Augusta University. But after looking up, I saw all of that it did have to offer I wanted to play volleyball. Academics was also a very high priority. So I came in undecided and took like the first year to do all the required courses. Once I met the team, I love the girls that were on the team. They all connected really well with me. They showed me a great time when I was on my visit. I visited the cyber campus and I loved it. And growing up even when I was young girl, whatever I put on my Christmas list, I always put gadgets. I wanted gadgets over clothes or gift cards or something along that and I described it as literally gadgets. I feel like cybersecurity super innovative and it's always growing, it's always changing. So you as a professional in cybersecurity have to change and develop with it. Walking into my first cybersecurity class, it was intimidating because I was probably one of the few females in the class. I also think it's encouraging and when you see that, because it motivates you to show the strength that you're one of the few that are there. It's so motivating to want to be successful and to be a difference maker. My advice would be, if you set your mind to something, you are still going to face adversity and challenges along the way. So you have to be able to persevere through those challenges because it will be better on the other side, and you'll be glad that you did it.
