(HARLINGEN, Texas) – For many, technical terms like “basic input/output systems” — or “BIOS,” for short — might make their eyes glaze over. But for Carlos Perez, a Texas State Technical College student working on his Associate of Applied Science degree in Cybersecurity, they are fuel for his imagination.
“In middle school, I enjoyed learning the purpose for coding and how to code,” Perez said. “In high school, my uncle explained that a BIOS program manages the flow of data between a computer’s hardware and software. That led me to build computers from scratch as a hobby as a teenager.”

Perez said he enjoys the Cybersecurity program’s camaraderie.
“Each student learns from each other so we can improve our skills,” he said. “My goal is to gain many skills that a company needs and potentially travel for my career.”
Alex Alcoser is one of Perez’s instructors at TSTC.
“We are teaching our students real-world industry standards to prepare them for the workforce,” Alcoser said. “An example of an assignment that Carlos did is called subnetting. It allows a student to design networks that will enable them to understand the separation of networks for security purposes.”

Perez said his choice to study Cybersecurity at TSTC has given him purpose.
“I’m motivated to learn how to prevent a cyberattack so I can be the candidate an employer wants to hire,” he said.
According to onetonline.org, information security engineers in Texas earn a median salary of $100,720 a year. The website projected that there would be a 20% increase in the number of such jobs in the state from 2020 to 2030.
To learn more about TSTC’s Cybersecurity program, go to tstc.edu/cybersecurity.