Ayisha Barrie
Delaware County Community College student Ayisha Barrie of Secane, a dual major in Cloud Computing and Cyber Security, has received a $5,000 Lockheed Martin Scholarship and a full-time job offer through Lockheed Martin Space’s Software Associate Degree Program. Additionally, Barrie has been accepted into the company’s Software Associate Degree Program (SWAP), a three-year development program designed to attract, develop, and retain early-career technical professionals in software and cyber-related careers.
Students are accepted into the SWAP program before they graduate with their associate degree to receive on-the-job training, accelerate the clearance process and be ready to join Lockheed Martin full time after graduation.
Born in Sierra Leone and raised in Guinea and the U.S., Barrie is a graduate of Academy Park High School. After a rocky college start—she was juggling a full-time, graveyard-shift job and single-parenting two young children simultaneously with her studies— “I decided to change my strategy. I started communicating, reaching out, and connecting with people,” she said.
A first-generation college student, Barrie attributes her success to the guidance she has found through the College’s Office of First-Generation Student Success, Office of Student Employment and Co-op Services, and the Computer Science program. At DCCC, she discovered her aptitude for Computer Science and learned more about the opportunities in the field. The Student Employment Office also helped her land an IT internship at Independence Mission schools in preparation for her work at Lockheed Martin. She is vice president of DCCC’s Multicultural Club, a member of the Muslim Student Association, and the founder of the DCCC Women’s Soccer Club.
Barrie is fluent in several languages and her goal is to become a software engineering programmer and pursue a Ph.D. She offers the following advice for new college students who are also juggling work and family responsibilities with their studies: “No matter how hard it is, never give up. Failure is part of success. One day you are going to succeed.”
DCCC’s Cloud Computing associate degree program prepares students for employment in Cloud Computing fields such as Cloud Administration, Cloud Development, Security, Architecture, Cloud Data Management, DevOps, and Machine Learning. Students can tailor part of the curricula to match one of two professional pathways: Cloud Engineer/Architect and Cloud Software Developer. The College also offers a Certificate of Proficiency in Cloud Computing. DCCC’s Cybersecurityassociate degree program prepares students for employment as Cyber, Network, or Computer information security specialists. The Cyber Security Certificate of Competency prepares students to identify security threats to networked computers, devices, and their data.
