Building a Future in Cybersecurity

Hanna Shrout knew there was value in simply being in the room.

It was spring 2026, and Marshall University’s Institute for Cyber Security was hosting CyberCon, bringing cybersecurity professionals, industry leaders and potential employers to campus. Hanna was just a few months from earning her master’s degree in cybersecurity, and a full-time job was one of the biggest things on her mind.

So, she showed up.

She was right.

Dr. Paulus Wahjudi, professor of computer science at Marshall, knew Hanna was looking for career opportunities and introduced her to someone attending the conference.

Today, that person is her manager.

After graduating from Marshall in May 2026, Hanna began working as a security operations center analyst with the West Virginia Office of Technology.

It is a career Hanna never imagined when she first arrived at Marshall.

The Proctorville, Ohio, native originally came to Marshall to study finance and compete on the women’s golf team. Cybersecurity wasn’t part of the plan.

But while completing minors as an undergraduate, Hanna took courses in computer and information technology and management information systems. She liked them and eventually began wondering whether technology might offer a different path.

That curiosity brought her back to Marshall for a master’s degree in cybersecurity.

It also brought plenty of uncertainty.

Hanna entered the program surrounded by classmates who seemed to have more experience in the field. She wondered whether she could keep up.

Then Dr. James Lanham began hosting a study group to help students prepare for the CompTIA Security+ certification exam.

“Dr. Lanham provided unwavering encouragement and support,” Hanna said. “I was the first to pass in the study group, and it gave me the confidence to know I could pursue the degree.”

It was a small victory with a much bigger impact.

Hanna began leaning further into the opportunities around her. She joined Marshall’s Cyber Team and Women in CyberSecurity or WiCyS. She took a graduate assistant position with the Institute for Cyber Security in spring 2025. She spent more time with faculty, staff and students who shared her interests and began discovering just how much of a cybersecurity education happens outside the classroom.

Those experiences also put people in Hanna’s corner.

Lakan Sheets, assistant director of operations for the Institute for Cyber Security, helped connect Hanna with her first cybersecurity internship with the West Virginia Health Information Network (WVHIN), West Virginia’s Health Information Exchange (HIE), after learning she was looking for an opportunity.

“My work on West Virginia’s HIE allowed me to gain a ton of experience in risk and compliance,” Hanna said. “I’m really grateful for the work I’ve done with them.”

Faculty encouraged her and her classmates became her friends. Through the institute, she met professionals and alumni working in the field she hoped to enter.

Then came CyberCon.

By then, Hanna had learned something about opportunities: Sometimes, you have to put yourself in the room before you know what will happen there.

“The awesome part about CyberCon is that it draws amazing speakers and attendees who all have the same goal: learning and spreading knowledge,” she said. “As a student, everyone I spoke to was eager to know more about what I was doing in the classroom and my future goals.”

Hanna knows walking up to an industry professional and starting a conversation can be intimidating. She also knows now how much can come from doing it anyway.

“CyberCon brings you the opportunity to meet industry professionals you would otherwise not have access to,” she said. “They want to meet you and talk about what you are learning. You just have to make the effort to show up and talk to them.”

Today, Hanna is putting those lessons to work as a tier one analyst in the West Virginia Office of Technology’s Security Operations Center, where she works with endpoints, firewalls and phishing.

Starting her career has given her a new perspective on the scale and complexity of cybersecurity. The technology is always changing. Threats evolve. There is always another problem to solve and something new to understand.

Fortunately, Hanna says Marshall prepared her for that, too.

It is a long way from the path Hanna pictured when she first arrived on campus as a finance student and college athlete.

If that version of herself could see her now?

“She would be in awe,” Hanna said. “I have met so many people, made so many memories and have grown in ways I would have never imagined. I think that version of me would be proud and a bit less stressed if she knew where we are today.”

Marshall has been there through each version of Hanna’s story: the student-athlete studying finance, the graduate student wondering whether she belonged in cybersecurity, the student who passed her certification exam, the intern gaining her first experience and the soon-to-be graduate walking into CyberCon hoping a conversation might lead somewhere.

“Marshall has given me so much,” Hanna said. “Now I have Marshall to thank for my first job. I will forever be grateful for everything Marshall gave me and proud to be an alumna.”

Her advice to the students still figuring out where their own Marshall experience might take them is simple.

“It really does fly by,” she said. “Get involved, meet new people, try new things. Enjoy it, but also work hard.”

And, perhaps most importantly, show up. You never know who might be in the room.