Colleges come together for ISPS student cybersecurity conference

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On July 10 and 11, the Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions (ISPS), a non-partisan, nonprofit think tank established by former Congressman C.W. Bill Young, launched its first annual ISPS Student Conference at the St. Petersburg College Seminole Campus Conference Center.

ISPS director Kimberly Jackson.

Created by and designed for students and faculty in the Florida College System, this idea of a student-led conference first began in late 2024, through collaboration and communication between institute director Kimberly Jackson and the Bob Graham Center for Public Service, at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

The Bob Graham Center is known for hosting the Future of Florida (FOF) Summit, inspired by conferences hosted at Harvard University, but with the focus on policies in the Sunshine State. The Graham Center helped ISPS by providing history on the FOF summit, its development and the mission goals of a program, providing a space for students to network, participate in conservation and develop policy proposals with other like-minded students across multiple colleges and universities in the state.   

Starting in March, the student committee members gathered information necessary for creating and customizing a conference tailored for a Florida College System audience.

Alexander Jordan Sr., the Director of Operations at the Florida Department of Education, was a breakout session speaker.

The two-day conference had a turnout of over 35 students, representing 11 of the 28 state colleges across the FCS from the peninsula to the south Florida region.

The event revolved around a fictional policy scenario. Assigned into groups, students were to use the knowledge gathered from the breakout and keynote sessions. These groups each became a fictional task force, with the goal of creating a policy proposal to address a fictional (but real world) crisis.

The “crisis” related to the hacking and disruption of a statewide smart system and our over-reliance on AI, and led to addressing the question of how can Florida better secure its cybersecurity systems?

These projects help students develop interdisciplinary thinking and understanding, predicate stakeholder behaviors and impacts to them, in addition and helping them learn how to work like public policy analysts.

The Institute hopes to use the lessons, feedback and other information gathered from this event to not only strengthen the impact of next year’s conference, but also to help revolutionize and invest into new programs that supports its mission.

Michael Ballard is an ISPS Student Fellow, and Conference Chair of this year’s Cybersecurity Conference.