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A Montana college is using grant money to get students excited about cybersecurity.

Gallatin College Montana State University won a $50,000 grant through Montana's Future at Work program. Ronda Black, program director for information technology and cybersecurity at the college, wants to let students and teachers know about cybersecurity options.

"You don't have to code and know coding to get into cybersecurity," she said. "It involves areas like risk management, law, policy, forensics, ethical hacking – there are so many different career fields you can go into."

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Montana's Future at Work program helps high school students earn career credentials. Black said part of the grant money allows students to earn a free dual-enrollment certification in cybersecurity, which can be applied toward college degrees.

There were more than 1,600 vacant cybersecurity jobs in Montana in 2025, and Black said she hopes to inspire more students to work in the field.

Black is also using the grant to fund an online platform for teachers called the 406 Cybersmart Lounge. She said educators can find 50-minute courses that combine their subject specialty with cybersecurity skills. Black has also developed Cyber Kits teachers can get through MSU's library. The kits include labs that students can do in the classroom.

"It's a hands-on kit that the teacher would get in the mail, and this is providing [for] students in the classroom all the way across Montana," she said. "It doesn't matter what rural area you're in."

Beyond careers in cybersecurity, Black said she wants students to understand cyber safety. She's created the 406 Cybersmart Teens partner program to help with this.

"Just being able to teach everybody how to be safe online, and the dangers out there," she said. "The things that they can control by setting different settings in their apps, and that kind of thing."

Black said response to these programs has been strong so far.