{"id":59810,"date":"2021-05-19T13:30:41","date_gmt":"2021-05-19T18:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=59810"},"modified":"2021-05-19T13:30:43","modified_gmt":"2021-05-19T18:30:43","slug":"online-cybersecurity-graduate-crosses-the-atlantic-to-attend-fhsu-commencement-in-person","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=59810","title":{"rendered":"Online cybersecurity graduate crosses the Atlantic to attend FHSU commencement in person"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By UNIVERSITY RELATIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot of graduates from Fort Hays State University participated in the online commencement ceremony this year because of the pandemic. But Osama Tamimi decided long ago he would attend his graduation from FHSU, even if it meant making the long trek from the Middle East to the middle of the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tamimi \u2013 who earned a Master of\nProfessional Studies (MPS) in cybersecurity through FHSU Online \u2013 made the\n6,744-mile trip from his homeland East Jerusalem, Palestine, to personally\nparticipate in last weekend\u2019s graduation activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Allowing online graduates to take part\nin the in-person commencement ceremonies was one of several requirements for\nTamimi when he began researching online degree opportunities two years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A self-described researcher, Tamimi \u00ad\u2013\nan IP network and security supervisor for a telecommunications company in Palestine \u2013 was looking for an online program in\ncybersecurity at an institution with excellent accreditation. He was impressed\nto find that FHSU is accredited through the National Center of Academic\nExcellence (NCAE) in information assurance and cyber defense education. The U.S. Government has designated FHSU as a National\nCenter of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education. Affordable\ntuition at FHSU was also a plus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere aren\u2019t too many programs that are\nentirely online,\u201d Tamimi said, \u201cand they aren\u2019t many with that accreditation. I\nwas very pleased to see that tuition is the same for anyone – worldwide. There\nwere options in Australia and the United Kingdom, but there were better options\nin the United States. With Fort Hays State, I found exactly what I was looking\nfor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After all the cancelations and event\nrescheduling because of the pandemic, Tamimi \u2013 who had a current U.S. Visa \u2013\nknew there was still a possibility he wouldn\u2019t be able to attend his graduation\nceremony in person. When he learned that FHSU was indeed holding in-person\nceremonies this spring, he began planning for his 12-day trip to America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tamimi earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in\ncomputer engineering from Jordan University of Science and Technology in Irbid,\nJordan, in 2011. Various fellowships and work obligations have taken him to 28\ndifferent countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was his fifth trip to the United\nStates \u2013 and first to Kansas \u2013 and he made the most of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He checked regulations for every airport\nhe would be using, paying close attention to any possible changes because of\nCOVID-19 protocols. After several days of travel, he arrived in Hays on\nTuesday, three days before his commencement ceremony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lover of nature, Tamimi visited Cedar Bluff Lake in Trego County. He wanted to take a tour of Hays, too, so Cindy Elliott \u2013 FHSU assistant vice president for Global Partnerships \u2013 obliged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"

Graduate Osama Tamimi, right, from East Jerusalem, Palestine, pictured with his Fort Hays State University advisor, Jason Zeller, at last weekend\u2019s FHSU commencement<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

On his return trip home, Tamimi planned\na visit to Wilson Lake, Mushroom State Park near Brookville, and the state\ncapitol in Topeka, then take a drive through the Flinthills on his way to the\nKansas City International Airport. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI just really wanted to experience the\njoys of Kansas, but it turned out that attending the\nceremony in person has more benefits and advantages than I initially thought,\u201d\nhe said. \u201cI was introduced to many faculty and staff members and got to know\nthem in person, which resulted in an excellent engagement. It made the Hays\ntrip very fruitful with unforgettable memories, not to mention the good times\nthat I spent on campus. Having such an experience will encourage me to get back\nto school in the future for a higher degree.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tamimi was able to continue his program\nwithout delay when the pandemic forced Fort Hays State to switch to remote\noperations for the remainder of the spring semester last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe beauty of our program is that it\u2019s\ndesigned for online first. All the content and hands-on lab activities are the\nsame if you are on campus or in taking courses online,\u201d said Jason Zeller,\nassistant professor of informatics, lead faculty of the cybersecurity program,\nand Tamimi\u2019s advisor. \u201cSo absolutely nothing changed with the program when\nCOVID hit. We were fortunate in that regard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tamimi was pleased that he was able to\nincorporate into his workplace findings from his master\u2019s capstone project \u2013\nautomatic detection and mitigation of Volumetric DDoS attacks (one of the most\ncommon attacks in cybersecurity). For his project, he developed software that\nwill automatically detect and mitigate that type of attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cybersecurity professionals are in high\ndemand all over the country. In an effort to meet the varying degree of skills\nrequired for an array of available positions, the Department of Informatics\nadded an undergraduate cybersecurity major in addition to the long-standing\nmaster\u2019s program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Zeller expects the undergraduate\nprogram to be a feeder for the master\u2019s program, he notes that the Fort Hays\nState cybersecurity programs can be made to fit anyone, regardless of prior\neducation background, considering a student\u2019s objectives and needs.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tamimi thinks FHSU\u2019s master\u2019s program\nstacks up against any in the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have had a lot of fellowships in\nseveral different countries,\u201d Tamimi said, \u201cand Fort Hays State\u2019s cybersecurity\nprogram is an exceptional one.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By UNIVERSITY RELATIONS A lot of graduates from Fort Hays State University participated in the online commencement ceremony this year because of the pandemic. But… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11722],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-releases"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Osama1.jpg?fit=1280%2C960&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59810"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59813,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59810\/revisions\/59813"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/59811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}