6,383 Georgia Students Competed in CyberStart -- and the State's $124K Cybersecurity Salaries Explain Why

A 564% jump in participation does not happen by accident. When 6,383 students across 274 Georgia high schools entered the CyberStart America competition -- making Georgia the top-participating state in the country -- it reflected deliberate infrastructure work by the Georgia Tech Research Institute, the University of North Georgia, the Georgia Cyber Center, and the Georgia Department of Education. But it also reflected something students can see for themselves in the labor market data: cybersecurity analysts in Georgia earn a median salary of $124,270, and the occupation is projected to grow 21.6% nationally, classified by BLS as growing much faster than average with approximately 2,900 annual openings.

The CyberStart program itself functions as an accessible on-ramp. Students take on the role of cyber protection agents, working through challenges in code breaking, programming, network defense, and digital forensics -- no prior experience required. That low barrier to entry matters because it pulls in students who might not have considered cybersecurity as a realistic career direction. Once engaged, participants develop skills that align directly with industry credentials like CompTIA Security+, Cisco CyberOps Associate, and CompTIA Network+, all of which are available through Georgia's Networking and Computer Science IT pathways.

GTRI's role went beyond promotion into curriculum alignment. The institute built a standards matrix mapping CyberStart content to the Georgia Department of Education's CTAE course requirements, ensuring that time students invest in the competition reinforces the competencies counted toward their pathway progress. Network technician roles in Georgia start at a median of $75,380, and the path to network engineer -- at $132,300 median salary in the state -- runs through precisely the kind of foundational skills CyberStart develops.

The broader context amplifies the significance. An estimated 25,000 cyber job openings exist in Georgia, drawn from a national pool of roughly 700,000 unfilled positions. The 2024 Workforce for Georgia Grants funded cybersecurity pathway expansions at three additional schools, and the state's High Demand Career List almost certainly includes cybersecurity occupations given their alignment with the high-demand, high-wage, and high-skill criteria. For Georgia students, the pathway from a free online competition to a six-figure career in network defense has never been more clearly mapped.