At Mercer University, Sydney Godwin found the community she desired and the leadership opportunities she needed to take her education to the next level. A December cybersecurity graduate who’s now on the job hunt, she said her Mercer experiences equipped her with an abundance of skills that she can apply to the workforce.
Godwin grew up in Kuwait and moved with her family to Columbus, Georgia, in 2019 before her junior year of high school. She said coming to America was a big adjustment, and when COVID-19 arrived soon after, building relationships became even more difficult.
As she considered her college options, Godwin toured Mercer and was drawn to the community feel and the engagement of the students.
“Peers go out of their way to connect with you. Everybody wants to be friends. I really think that was a great part of going to Mercer,” Godwin said. “Mercer played a huge role in helping me find a sense of security and community in a country that still felt unfamiliar to me. Mercer provided the strong, welcoming community I had been missing and gave me a space to navigate my identity and truly feel at home.”
With a longtime passion for coding, she started out as a computer science major and switched to cybersecurity after discovering she was more interested in data protection and privacy. She minored in information science and technology.
She took advantage of opportunities to connect with her peers, faculty and staff on campus. She and a few other students created a cyber awareness program, through which they hosted seminars and workshops about cybersecurity crimes and cyber safety.
As a Mercer Honors student, Godwin mentored freshmen majoring in STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — fields and helped them get involved on campus. She said this opened her eyes to ways she could become engaged with the Mercer community outside of her major.
She also served as a teaching assistant for the “Introduction to Operating Systems” course and as a Computer Science Ambassador, through which she met with prospective students and led them on campus tours.
“It was really fun talking with students and parents alike and seeing what they were interested in,” she said.
In addition, Godwin gained real-world IT experience through a work-study job with Mercer’s IT department. She provided technical support to faculty and staff around campus, generally working on about 30 computers a week. She helped to set up and configure new equipment and enjoyed having the opportunity to meet more faculty members through this position.
“The combination of school leadership and contributing to my own community on Mercer’s campus really helped me get ready for what the real world is,” she said. “A lot of what I’ve done on campus prepared me for what will be a lot of my day-to-day in the workforce.”
Godwin hopes to become a cyber analyst and perhaps one day secure a government interest position. Cyber analyst work combines three elements she enjoys: continuing education, multitasking and proactivity.
“You have to keep on top of trends that bad actors — or hackers — are doing and keep on top of your own systems. I really like learning, so it’s something that’s going to be a lifelong passion,” she said. “I would also love to inspire (a passion for) STEM and coding. There is still a lack of women in the STEM field. I would love to encourage that love for learning in others too.”
