Community, Connections, and Cybersecurity: Nate Avery ’26 Helps Lead Trip to Security Summit
After serving for four years in the United States Army as an infantryman in a Scout Sniper Platoon with the 101st Airborne, Nathan Avery ’26 was searching for a university that would launch his next professional chapter while honoring the experience and community he had built through his service. At Assumption, he found just that.
“There’s a great veteran program here, and a dual program in cybersecurity and computer science that I was looking for,” says Avery, who is double majoring in those fields alongside minors in fraud examination and forensic accounting and data analytics. “It’s a perfect fit.”
Guided to the field of computer science by an interest in both the analytical and creative, and a recommendation from his best friend, Noah Laren ’24, Avery enrolled at Assumption and immediately got involved in helping cultivate support for veterans.
“I noticed a need to get veterans on campus together with events that build community,” he says. “So, I created the Military Connect Club.”
Some of these events have already come to fruition, such as the Veterans Day Ceremony on November 13 and a Veterans Food Drive, organized by Avery, which collected donations for Project New Hope, Inc.
In addition to his work with fellow veterans, Avery is working towards his future as a cybersecurity professional. This year, he has been working as an intern with Assumption’s Information Technology and Media Services Department at the Help Desk and serves as the treasurer of the cybersecurity club.
With club president Lucas Audette ’26, Avery recently led a trip to Westlake, Ohio, for the 23rd Information Security Summit (ISS) that gathers security professionals for education, networking, training, and programming.
“It all started with our departmental award winner Rob Russell [Class of 2025]. He was giving a talk with our professor, Selvan Snow [professor of practice in cybersecurity], and I really wanted to show support for them,” he says.
Beyond planning logistics for the trip, Avery became van-certified with the University so he could drive the club members on the 9-and-a-half-hour trip to the summit.
“We have such a tight-knit community—and a supportive one—that we were willing to drive over 20 total hours to support our professors and students and what they do,” Avery says. “It was meaningful to see the impact of our support not only on an alum, but on our professor. I could tell how much it meant to him, and he did a wonderful job advocating for us and helping us network.”
Russell and Snow gave a presentation at the conference titled “The Future of the Cybersecurity Workforce: Above and Below the Line,” that gave audience members insight into the cybersecurity workforce from both the hiring and applicant perspectives.
“At the conference, we had the chance to learn from professionals across AI governance, cloud security, and more, but the standout moment was of course the joint presentation,” Avery said. “Robert shared what it was like entering the industry at the ground level, while Professor Snow spoke from the CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) and hiring manager perspective. Together, they gave us a look at cybersecurity from both ends of the industry, and I’m grateful I was there to see my friend and my professor bring that kind of insight to the room.”
The conference also opened new opportunities for Assumption’s cybersecurity club, including a trip to Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA for OptivCon New England, another conference focused on the cybersecurity industry.
“Assumption’s cybersecurity club is growing, but the thing that stands out the most is the commitment people here have to each other,” Avery says. “This trip made that obvious, and I’m proud to have been part of making it happen.”