LBCSI
LOYOLA BLAKEFIELD CYBER SCIENCE INITIATIVE SPRING 2026 NEWSLETTER
Foreword It's been a busy year for our LBCSI dons! Through blizzards and sub-zero temperatures in the Winter and long heavy afternoons in the Spring, LBCSI has partnered with the National Cryptologic Foundation at the TAC Center in Columbia, Maryland for Cyber Saturday and Cyber Feud at Loyola, met with international cyber leaders at the Israeli Cyber Innovation Evening, finished CyberPatriot 18 with multiple state and national titles, hosted yet another successful LBC2 event, and our alumni have been making their marks on the cyber industry. We are excited to share what we have been up to and what's soon to come next year!
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National Cryptologic Foundation On January 17th and May 2nd, members of LBCSI's Leadership Team assisted the National Cryptologic Foundation (NCF)'s Cyber Saturday event at the TAC Center in Columbia, Maryland. The annual event allows youth and parents to participate in various cyber events and learn about the newest cyber security advancements. We were also lucky enough to host the NCF Cyber Feud event at Loyola! This event is a cybersecurity trivia competition in which student teams from different schools across Maryland compete and answer questions related to cyber defense, digital safety, and current technology trends. In addition, our very own Stephen Morrill was invited to speak on the NCF's #CyberChats Podcast, where he discussed building cyber leaders. Give it a listen!
Israeli Cyber Innovation Evening On February 18th, Mr. Stephen Morrill and Kai Cooke '26 attended the Israeli Cyber Innovation Evening. Hosted by TEDCO, a local tech venture capital firm, Steve and Kai interacted with executives representing various cyber security corporations and organizations from across the state and from Israel, as well as various Israeli cyber startups.
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Dark Wolf Solutions Spotlight LBCSI would like to give a huge thank you to our new primary presenting sponsor for LBC2, Dark Wolf Solutions, as well as Oliver Sadorra '99, their Chief Growth Officer! We could not run LBC2 without them. They aren't just supporting event logistics, though; Dark Wolf cyber security experts and software developers developed their own challenges for LBC2, as well! Thank you Dark Wolf and thank you Oliver for your support. We look forward to welcoming Dark Wolf back next year for the 10th edition of LBC2!
Edward St. John Foundation Impact Report We're incredibly grateful to be featured in the Edward St. John Foundation's annual Philanthropic Development Impact Report. The St. John Foundation has been LBCSI's leading cornerstone partner since 2016, supporting our goal of building the world's future cyber leaders and allowing us to compete on the national stage, host state-wide competitions, travel internationally, and represent our nation. Thank you so much to Mr. Edward St. John, Mrs. Ms. Sharon Sharon Akers, and the entirety of the Edward St. John Foundation!
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Guest Speaker Series Amer Mallah On January 8th, LBCSI welcomed Mr. Amer Mallah, Chief Technology Officer of InVita Health. Amer graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a degree in Biology and Computer Science before working in various software development roles. Before joining InVita, he worked as Chief Information Officer of WebbMason and Chief Technology Officer of DemandBridge. InVita is a major player in the world of healthcare technologies, primarily managing the tracking of blood and plasma for blood banks and hospitals, as well as donated organs and forensic samples. Amer's company is headquartered in Baltimore, but works with hospitals, donation centers, and law enforcement agencies around the country. During his speech, he discussed the importance of cyber security to industries such as healthcare technologies as well as strategies for finding, applying for, and securing jobs in the IT/Cybersecurity field. Thank you Amer for taking the time to speak to LBCSI about your experience in the healthcare and technology industries!
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Jasper Graham On January 29th, LBCSI welcomed Jasper Graham, Global Deputy CISO and Threat Hunt Lead at Morgan Stanley. During his speech, he discussed his path from his first experiences with technology to where he is now, his time with the NSA and how he was hired, and his work at Morgan Stanley. At Morgan Stanley, Jasper is the leading cyber professional protecting systems that move 1/5 of the world's money every single day. Thank you so much for visiting, Jasper! We hope to have you back next year!
MIDN Charlie Hale On February 20th, LBCSI welcomed back MIDN Charlie Hale '23 to share his experiences at the US Naval Academy and of how a military environment has shaped his recent education. Charlie has been selected as Commander of 2nd Regiment, Senior Class of Midshipmen at the United States Naval Academy. He will be leading 2200 midshipmen during his senior year. Congratulations Charlie! Charlie hopes to display his skills one day working at the NSA. During his speech, Charlie spoke about complacency and the values of grit and dedication that he has learned while at the USNA. He also spoke about SIGINT and the summer assignments he's had in the Navy. While in LBCSI, Charlie served on our Leadership Team as Field Operations Lead. Thank you so much, Charlie, for coming back to speak to our Dons. We look forward to having you back next year!
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Janet Rathod On March 5th, LBCSI welcomed back Ms. Janet Rathod to share her experiences in the cyber industry, both on the government and private side. A 16-year veteran of the FBI's cyber and intelligence divisions, former Capital One and Citi Group cyber executive, and current Johns Hopkins University and Medicine CISO, Janet is well versed in all things cyber. During her speech, she spoke to LBCSI members about artificial intelligence and the future of cyber. Thank you so much, Janet, for returning to speak to our club. We look forward to seeing you again next year!
Evan Dornbush On April 21st, LBCSI welcomed back Mr. Evan Dornbush to Loyola Blakefield to speak about the process of climbing the ladder in the cyber industry and the modern path to starting a business. Evan is a serial entrepreneur who focuses on investing in and working with smaller businesses in the cyber security world. During his speech, Evan discussed both the opportunities and the challenges that come with pursuing a career in cybersecurity. Evan also spoke about the impact of artificial intelligence on the workforce and some strategies for navigating today's job market, offering the club members a recipe for success. Thank you so much Evan, for returning to speak to the group. We look forward to having you back next year!
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Alumni Spotlight Joe O'Neill '22 and Cody Smith '21 Joe O'Neill '22, a senior at Penn State and previous Cisco Training Lead, as well as Cody Smith '21, who graduated from the University of Maryland last year, have both received job offers from IBM. Congratulations Joe and Cody!
Anshul Chelapurath '23 After interviews with Amazon, Palantir, and Salesforce, Anshul Chelapurath '23 is now serving an internship with Google out of California. Congratulations on the internship, Anshul!
Aidan Brehm '21 Aidan Brehm '21 recently started a new position at Meta as a cryptographer. Congratulations on the new position, Aidan!
Jack Wachter '24 Jack Wachter '24, who just completed his sophomore year at Georgia Tech majoring in Computer Science, has been making his mark on the cyber world. Last summer, he interned as a Software Engineer with Lockheed Martin's Space division. This year, he has received internship offers from Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, MITRE, and Lockheed Martin, and accepted an internship with Amazon Web Services out of Colorado. Among that, he has continued his work on his startup, AerLock. AerLock is designed to be an all-in-one solution for small to medium sized businesses to get enterprise-level cybersecurity. Jack's startup has already received funding from various donors and is well on its way to becoming the next big cyber company. Well done, Jack!
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2nd Lt. Will Erdman '21 On March 12, we were lucky enough to have 2nd Lt. Will Erdman '21 return to LBCSI as a guest speaker to discuss his time as an AFROTC student at Notre Dame University and his cyber security work in the US Air Force. Will obtained his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science in 2025 and is currently studying for his master's degree, conducting research for the advancement of agentic AI security in network environments. He is currently leading a team of students in the development of BotHunterX, a software designed to safeguard networks against rogue AI agents. Thanks so much for coming by to speak, Will!
Jack Klug '21 and Sawyer Jones '21 Jack Klug '21 and Sawyer Jones '21 have both recently accepted new positions at T. Rowe Price. Congratulations on the new position!
Campbell Gleason '21 Campbell Gleason '21 recently volunteered to be the Alumni Class Captain for the Class of 2021. Congratulations, Campbell!
Emmett Omron '24 Emmett Omron '24, a sophomore at the University of Maryland, recently accepted an internship position with TechPals, a technology enablement platform empowering older adults to stay safe and connected online. Congratulations, Emmett!
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Term 2 Activities With CyberPatriot season having come to a close in the early Spring, LBCSI's Term 2 activities have been in full swing! Students have been attending courses for CompTIA's Network+, Security+, A+, and Linux+ certificates, as well as courses in Biometrics, Beginner and Advanced CTF, and Server Hardware.
Certifications
We're happy to announce that LBCSI has 8 more members with professional-level certifications! We would like to thank our sponsors, specifically the St. John Foundation, for providing us with the opportunity to take these exams without cost. Congratulations to the following Dons for obtaining their Network+ certification: Brody Elkins '27 • Teddy Murphy '28 • Preston Starner '28 • Sebastian Rugas '27 • Grant Benegas '28 • Greyson Wyss '27 • Liam Yates '28 • Sean Henyan '28
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Air Force Association's CyberPatriot
Team Axios — CyberPatriot 18 National Finals, Open Division
We are happy to announce that Dons have taken many state and national titles once again in the Air Force Association's CyberPatriot 18 competition! CyberPatriot is the largest youth cybersecurity competition in the nation, attracting over 3,000 teams from all over the country. Our 19 teams worked hard all year, with 8 teams qualifying for the semi-final round among the top 25% of all high school teams and 50% of all middle school teams in the country. Middle School Dons swept the state round with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finishers.
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Team Axios, our Nationals team last year, placed 2nd in the state and once again progressed to the national round to compete against the 10 other top teams in the Open Division! From March 20th through 24th, Team Axios and its members — Patrick Dishon '26, Kai Cooke '26, Connor Counselman '26, Billy Nicholson '26, Matthew Kocorowski '26, and JT Nachtman '26 — headed to Bethesda, Maryland to compete for a shot at a $50,000 grand prize at nationals. This team worked extremely hard, had lots of fun, and are very grateful for this opportunity. Team Axios was able to secure a second-place finish in the Cisco Networking Challenge through their strong technical knowledge and teamwork. Congratulations to team Axios and all who competed!
Team Axios accepts their award at the CyberPatriot 18 National Finals banquet
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School Presentations On November 17th, LBCSI Leadership Team members Ryan Martin '28 and Kai Cooke '26, along with Mr. Stephen Morrill, visited Pot Spring Elementary in Timonium to give a presentation to students, faculty, and parents about internet safety, reputation, and finding common ground. We would like to thank Pot Spring Elementary and principal, Mrs. Jane Martin, for hosting us. If your school or anyone you know would like LBCSI students to deliver a digital awareness presentation regarding social media use, digital footprint, online safety, and reputation, please reach out
to
rbmartin2028@loyolablakefield.org,
rtmurphy2028@loyolablakefield.org,
smorrill@loyolablakefield.org. We would love to visit new schools, students, and parents!
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LBC2 — 9th Edition This year's Loyola Blakefield Cyber Challenge (LBC2) was held on March 29th, and was a resounding success, with over 120 combined competitors on 47 teams of students coming from across the east coast! LBC2 is unique in several ways: a beginner and an advanced division with industry-professional mentors to help guide beginners, and that the entire competition is student built and run. Made by students, for students.
CTF Round The competition was split into two rounds, with lunch in between. After a complimentary free breakfast, the day started off with the Capture the Flag (CTF) round, hosted on the CTFd platform. The round consisted of many different challenges that competitors had to solve in order to obtain a flag. Competitors had to use both critical thinking and technical skills to solve these challenges, which related to forensics, cryptography, reverse engineering, and more. All of the content was created by students, who worked diligently over several months to create a large quantity of quality challenges that tested competitors and expanded their minds in a fun and competitive setting.
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NCF Escape Room and IoT City Once again this year, LBC2 partnered with the National Cryptologic Foundation (NCF) and their Escape Room Challenge. Competitors had 20 minutes to solve a variation of challenges in order to escape the room and return to the CTFd round. In addition to the NCF Escape Room Challenge, competitors also had to battle their way through our very own Internet-of-Things (IoT) City, built by members of our Leadership Team. Here, competitors had to hack into a billboard, a traffic light, and streetlights in order to receive the full amount of points from the challenge.
Competitors working through LBC2 challenges at Loyola Blakefield
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Prizes, Winners, & Thank You's On a day where everyone won by learning more about cybersecurity, the top 3 teams for each division were awarded for their placements. These awards would not have been possible without the generous sponsors we had to keep LBC2 a free, yet valuable learning environment for all competitors. For the beginner division, Eastern Tech dominated — with team BonzIV in 3rd, Yahoo! in 2nd, and Sytnax Error in 1st. For the advanced division, South River High School's Team 3 got 3rd, Calvert Hall's Axios got 2nd, and Eastern Tech's pbchololate finished in 1st. Thank you to our generous LBC2 sponsors:
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Awards Banquet What a year it has been! On the evening of April 29th, LBCSI hosted our annual end-of-the-year banquet. We came together as a community — parents, current and former students, sponsors, and supporters — to celebrate the not-normal achievements of LBCSI this year and award exemplary students with prestigious awards. This year, our Antoine Kallab '17 Cyber Excellence Award went to Aidan Bossle '27. The Blue Team Leader Award, established by the Woolford Family Foundation, was bestowed to Sebastian Rugas '26. The night also highlighted the seniors leaving the program with heartfelt speeches as they go on to higher education; their decisions are displayed on the following page. Also, please check out our end of year video created by Mr. Lackner!
The Loyola Blakefield Cyber Science Initiative — 2025–2026
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Incoming Leadership Team With 7 departing seniors from this year's Leadership Team, we are enthused to announce the new '25–'26 '26–'27 Leadership Team. Field Operations
Product Developers
Ryan Martin '28
Sebastian Rugas '27
Teddy Murphy '28
Aidan Bossle '27
Lab Managers
Training Leads
Sean Henyan '28
Will Mascari '29 (Linux)
Liam Yates '28
Oliver Zivin '28 (Windows)
Mentor Leads
Miguel Devera '27 (Windows)
B Streets '28
Preston Starner '28 (Cisco)
Max Mayfield '28
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Looking Forward Over the coming summer, LBCSI is excited to be sending a group of Dons alongside Mr. Steve Morrill and Mr. Andy Flood to return to Bangkok, Thailand, to represent the United States at the Royal Thai Armed Forces Cyber Warrior Competition. Last summer, Loyola's team Axios worked through a long 9 hours and was able to secure a 1st place finish. Many other teams will be competing from around the globe, representing the U.S., Thailand, Australia, Singapore, and Vietnam. The team will also be returning to the Sarasas Ektra School, where last year's team donated the previous year's winnings in order to start a student cyber initiative in Bangkok. Mirroring LBCSI's origins, the Sarasas Ektra School's cyber program has been started by six founding members. We are also lucky to be running an LBC2 Thai Edition-style competition for students in Bangkok wanting to develop their CTF skills! As planning has continued over the summer, the competition has begun to take shape and will occur in the summer of 2026 when LBCSI returns in July. Currently, multiple LBCSI members are assisting the school via remote training sessions.
Summer Camp Opportunities During the week of June 22nd, we are happy to be hosting our annual cyber summer camp! Throughout the week, students will explore a variety of operating systems, including Windows and Linux, gaining a better understanding of how each one functions and how they differ from a security standpoint. They will also take part in hands-on activities involving basic hardware, learning how computer components work together and how physical systems can impact overall cybersecurity. If you
have
any
questions
about
rbmartin2028@loyolablakefield.org,
the
camp
or
enrollment,
please
reach
rtmurphy2028@loyolablakefield.org,
smorrill@loyolablakefield.org.
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Graduating Seniors Gabe Tomazar
University of Maryland
Zyon Ruffin
Workforce
Erhen Balubar
UMBC
Ayo Oladapo
UMBC
Josh Sitther
University of Maryland
Ari Rogozin
UMBC
Minoas Nicolaidis
Purdue University
Dylan Shepard
Drexel University
Thodore Hembling
West Virginia University
Matthew Kocorowski
Stony Brook University
Ryan Wachter
Temple University (Tokyo Campus)
JT Nachtman
Penn State
Billy Nicholson
Vanderbilt University
Jax Murray
Penn State
Christian Tony
UMBC
James Ballard
Clemson University
Will Ballard
University of Tennessee
Andrew Spencer
University of Maryland
Connor Counselman
University of Pittsburgh
Patrick Dishon
Notre Dame University
Oscar Frazier
University of Washington
Owen Gibson
Northeastern University
Kai Cooke
Carnegie Mellon University
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Where Our Seniors Are Headed
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Thank you all for taking the time to read this year's 2025–2026 Newsletter! Your continued interest and support is what makes our efforts possible.
As always, Roll Dons Roll! Thanks again, Kai Cooke '26 Teddy Murphy '28 Ryan Martin '28 Mr. Stephen Morrill The entirety of Loyola Blakefield's Cyber Science Initiative
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