Like many Wake Tech students, Jaden Lassiter juggled work and class. He just happened to work two full-time jobs while completing his studies.

Lassiter was part of the first cohort of students in the Sentinel Cybersecurity Bootcamp. The 33-week program, funded by a U.S. National Science Foundation grant, provides students with IT training, support services, networking opportunities – even a $15-an-hour stipend.

"They say, 'We'll launch you where you need to be. Just be ready for it when it comes,'" Lassiter said of the program.

And he was ready, landing an overnight position with a data security company in Morrisville and a daytime job with the North Carolina Department of Public Safety. He started working at both months before the bootcamp was over, counting the state job as his required Sentinel internship.

"I'm young, have no kids, energetic. I know I can do it," he said of working an 80-hour week in addition to his coursework.

Sandellyo Kauba, a Cybersecurity assistant professor at Wake Tech who helps lead the Sentinel program, says Lassiter was a standout student in the bootcamp. Even before the cohort was assembled, he says, Lassiter was reaching out for as much information as possible.

"He just has that 'it factor' that people look for," Kauba said. "He's passionate about his career, and other students know he's going places."

Cybersecurity wasn't even in Lassiter's plans when he graduated from high school. His mother is a pharmacist, so he planned on a career in health care, earning a degree in kinesiology from UNC-Greensboro. But various internships while at college redirected him toward IT, and he was hooked on cybersecurity after participating in another bootcamp at UNC-Chapel Hill.

"IT is the basis for health care these days," he noted, explaining that the change in his career path was only a minor one.

Lassiter's sister spotted information about Sentinel at her high school and told him about it. He says he was ecstatic when he was accepted into the program and even happier when the program exceeded his expectations.

"It provides the best hands-on skills training," he said. "And they actually paid me to learn."

Beyond the Sentinel program, he says, Wake Tech provides a great overall environment for learning.

"They greet you with open arms," he said. "Everyone I met basically said, 'I want to help you.'"

Lassiter says he wants to focus on protecting medical systems and other critical infrastructure as he grows in the cybersecurity field.

"Now, I'm diagnosing diseases in computers rather than people," he said.