TORONTO, May 11, 2022 – ESET, a global digital security company, is thrilled to announce that Nasreen Mir and Anushka Khare have been selected as the winners of ESET Canada’s Second Annual Women in Cybersecurity Scholarship.
Designed to help address the underrepresentation of women in the cybersecurity field, the Annual Women in Cybersecurity Scholarship grants $5,000 to an outstanding graduate/undergraduate woman majoring in a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) field of study. ESET Canada expanded the program this year to make room for two winners.
Nasreen Mir from Mississauga, Ontario is an early high school graduate and plans to attend Queen’s University in the fall, pursuing a Bachelor of Computing. In addition to maintaining excellent academic standards throughout her high-school career, Nasreen founded a Girls Cybersecurity Club in order to recruit and encourage her female peers to learn more about cybersecurity and participate in a National Girls Go CyberStart competition.
“Providing girls like myself a chance to gain skills in a growing area that could assist them in the future has been a highlight,” says Mir. “My goal is to drive progress in the world by building applications that are inclusive and cater to everyone, not just majority groups. I also want to work on services that already exist to increase security while also making them more inclusive.”
Anushka Khare from Calgary, Alberta is a third year student at the University of Alberta completing a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering. A recipient of the University of Alberta Deans Research Award, co-president of the STEM Fellowship, co-founder of a peer-to-peer rental start-up and creator of an app that helps improve the technology that Alzheimer’s patients use, Anushka has dedicated her free time to taking her computer engineering skills and knowledge for the betterment of society, by focusing on problems that affect her peers the most.
“A sense of passion to solve the problems around me has driven me to pursue an education in STEM. ” says Khare. “My business learnings have allowed me to develop a keen awareness to the importance of cybersecurity when evaluating the vulnerabilities that protrude during the development of my online business and other application productions. I want to contribute to the community around me by solving challenges and building connections whether that is through applications, my volunteering commitments, or sharing my knowledge with others.”
“Anushka and Nasreen’s submissions reflect the values we were looking for when selecting our candidates. Not only do they have a passion for STEM and cybersecurity, they’re already embodying what it is to be a conduit of progress in a world of technology,” said Celeste Blodgett, vice president of human resources at ESET. “We received a number of impressive and highly qualified applicants this year, and at the end of the day, the winners’ confidence, passion for the sciences, and their ability to turn dreams into reality is what solidified the selection process.”
Applicants were asked to complete an essay and include a letter of recommendation. More information on the qualifying process can be found here. In Canada, students can pursue a cybersecurity education at 47 colleges and 24 universities.
About ESET
For more than 30 years, ESET® has been developing industry-leading IT security software and services to protect businesses, critical infrastructure and consumers worldwide from increasingly sophisticated digital threats. From endpoint and mobile security to endpoint detection and response, as well as encryption and multifactor authentication, ESET’s high-performing, easy-to-use solutions unobtrusively protect and monitor 24/7, updating defenses in real time to keep users safe and businesses running without interruption. Evolving threats require an evolving IT security company that enables the safe use of technology. This is backed by ESET’s R&D centers worldwide, working in support of our shared future. For more information, visit www.eset.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.