Witnessing how Mason CC’s leadership fosters a community of learning and growth. 

BY ETHAN BURK, STAFF WRITER

Editor’s Note: This article was updated for accuracy on Dec. 23.

One of the largest student run STEM organizations on campus, while intimidating at first, is also one of the most inclusive and community focused organizations. 

Mason’s Competitive Cyber Club, or Mason CC, is one of the largest student organizations at Mason according to their number of social media followers and members of their discord. According to the Mason CC President, Senior Tanner Leventry, the club is not only large in online student membership, it manages to retain a high number of active weekly members. Mason CC focuses on exploring niche subjects in cybersecurity and they help their members hone special skills sets in the broader cybersecurity field.   

Members and guest speakers of the club host lecture style presentations to discuss contemporary cybersecurity practices and techniques. This allows senior members of the club to connect with new members and to encourage a community of learning.

Mason CC is working on expanding their club membership by advertising to other students who have little to no experience working in the cybersecurity field. 

“I really like the [the Mason CC] community aspect, I’ve made a small little team that is made up of my close friends and Mason CC members.” Treasurer Junior Ryan Wong said, “This club is great for helping people get exposed to working in a developer group environment.”

The club improves its members’ technical capabilities by sending them to hacking competitions and having their members compete regularly in capturing the flag challenges. “The club competes in one ‘capture the flag’ competition weekly that we use for practice” Junior Sanskar Pokharel, the Competitions Officer for the club said.

Throughout the year, Mason CC competes in statewide competitions such as Cyberfusion and the National Cyber League. These are great opportunities for Mason CC to showcase their skills and also recruit new members. “I first heard about them [Mason CC] at the Cyberfusion event, and that made me interested in being a member,” Junior Cooper Varela said, who is studying Cyber Security Engineering at Mason.

One of the club’s proudest accomplishments was placing first in the Cyberfusion competition. “That really showed the skill of our members, and helped raise awareness for our community at Mason,” Leventry said.

Mason also hosts a cyber competition for innovators called PatriotCTF which was successful this year for Mason CC. “We had over 3,000 people in attendance, it was crazy,” Secretary Junior Dylan Knoff said.

Leventry said his favorite part of the club is “meeting new people, the support from our alumni and [working on] making our community special.” 

Those who are interested may learn more about Mason’s Competitive Cyber club through their Instagram, Slack, or Discord.