// about
HANDS ON.
ON PURPOSE.
CITE is the Cybersecurity, IT & Networking program inside NIC's Career & Technical Education division. Curriculum shaped by the employers who hire our graduates, taught on the same gear they run.
// mission
Train people for the work,
not the lecture.
We exist to put hire-ready cybersecurity, networking, and IT professionals into regional and federal jobs — fast, with real credentials, and at community-college tuition. If you graduate with an accurate sense of how the work feels day-to-day, we've done our job.
// principles
FOUR PRINCIPLES.
- 01
Hands-on first.
Lecture is the smallest part. Most of every term is real hardware, real packets, real tools.
- 02
Smaller cohorts.
Real instructor time. Every student in the SOC has a name, not a seat number.
- 03
Stackable.
Stop at any level and work. Come back when you're ready for the next credential.
- 04
Built for jobs.
Curriculum reviewed every year by the regional employers who hire CITE grads.
// philosophy
YOU LEAVE WITH
HOURS, NOT NOTES.
The difference between a CITE graduate and someone who watched a 40-hour cert course is the muscle memory. You've broken the system and fixed it. You've held a console cable. You've walked the chain of custody on a contained incident.
That's what you walk into a job interview with — and that's what gets you hired before the AAS is even done.
// faculty
INSTRUCTORS WHO
RAN THE WORK.
Every CITE instructor came out of the field. Years on a SOC shift, on a network engineering team, or running a regional MSP — not just teaching the textbook.
- [ INSTRUCTOR ]12 YR · INDUSTRY
[Lead Cyber Instructor]
Lead Cybersecurity Instructor
Twelve-plus years running blue-team operations for regional health and education systems. Builds the SOC curriculum and runs the Wednesday IR drill.
- SOC operations
- Incident response
- Threat hunting
- MITRE ATT&CK
- [ INSTRUCTOR ]10 YR · INDUSTRY
[Network Engineering Faculty]
Network Engineering Faculty
Cisco-certified network engineer who spent a decade on regional wide-area networks before teaching. Owns the CCNA track and the Cisco lab.
- Cisco IOS
- Routing & switching
- OSPF / BGP
- Network design
- [ INSTRUCTOR ]14 YR · INDUSTRY
[Systems & Virtualization Faculty]
Systems & Virtualization Faculty
Long-time systems engineer with a deep background in Active Directory, virtualization, and identity. Runs the CIT virtualization lab and the cloud track.
- Windows Server
- Active Directory
- VMware
- Azure
- PowerShell
- [ INSTRUCTOR ]9 YR · INDUSTRY
[Linux & Offensive Faculty]
Linux & Offensive Concepts Faculty
Linux systems and ethical-hacking instructor. Runs the offensive concepts elective and authors the lab challenges that the cohort gets graded on.
- Linux administration
- Bash + Python scripting
- Pen testing
- OSINT
// cohort
SMALL COHORT.
REAL COMMUNITY.
You're not a seat number in a 300-person lecture. CITE cohorts are sized so every student rotates through SOC shifts, every cable run gets reviewed, and every capstone gets defended in person. The community sticks — graduates come back to mentor the next cohort.
- [ DISCORD ]
Cohort channel
Always-on Discord with instructors, current cohort, and alumni.
- [ OPEN_LAB ]
Lab open hours
Drop-in time on the SOC + Cisco lab outside class blocks.
- [ STUDY ]
Cert study groups
Peer-led groups for Sec+, Net+, CCNA, and Microsoft tracks.
- [ MENTOR ]
Alumni mentors
Graduates working in the field come back to coach current students.
// student_support
NOT ON YOUR OWN.
The supports that keep students enrolled and on-track — available the day you start.
- [ ADVISOR ]
Dedicated advisor
One advisor walks every CITE student from intake through graduation.
- [ TUTOR ]
Free peer tutoring
Drop-in tutoring from senior cohort members + instructors.
- [ AID ]
Financial aid
Federal scholarships (CAE-CD), Pell, and program-specific aid.
- [ CAREER ]
Career placement
Direct line into the regional employer network — internships + tier-1 jobs.
- [ TRANSFER ]
Transfer support
Articulation guidance for AAS → BS at LCSC, BSU, U of I, WGU.
- [ ACCESS ]
Accessibility
Accommodations and accessibility services through NIC's central office.
// next_step
Come walk the labs.
The fastest way to see if CITE is the right fit is to spend an hour in the building. Tour the SOC, sit in on a class, talk to the cohort.