Braxton Kenney

As a cadet in the West Virginia Army National Guard, I attend drill weekends and other training with my unit in order to gain valuable knowledge and experience. During these trainings I complete tasks for the unit officers and observe functions to better prepare myself for when I am an officer. After I graduate from WVU I will commission as an officer in the National Guard, and this experience will be invaluable when I am leading those much older than myself.

This is a program hosted by the AF Institute of Technology faculty, and covers a wide range of topics including networking, industrial control systems, digital forensics, cryptography, cyber attack & defense, firmware analysis, and software reverse engineering. The program ended with a week long “Hackathon,” which had teams set up a network with multiple hosts and services, and then compete with each other to keep these services up, capture other services on the public network, complete challenges, and locate flags.

In my position of Webmaster for the WVHSSCA, I was responsible for the development and maintenance of the association’s website. This site receives traffic from high soccer coaches and players across the state of West Virginia. I worked closely with my professor, who is a WVHSSCA officer, to implement the wants and needs of the association. Although it was never deployed due to the association focusing on other issues, a finished site was delivered that met all requirements.

As a lifeguard at the Randolph County YMCA I was responsible for the safety of patrons using the pool facilities, as well as maintaining said facilities to ensure satisfaction with the patrons.

In my position as a host for the Vintage Restaurant and Wine Bar I completed many different tasks to ensure smooth operation of the restaurant. These tasks included fulfilling take-out orders, seating customers, setting tables, cleaning facilities, and anything else needed by the wait staff and management.

I have been a member of Army ROTC at WVU for 3 years now, and I have learned extremely valuable skills. Through a military science class, morning physical fitness, weekly leadership labs, and semesterly field training exercises, I have gained a huge amount of leadership experience. For the fall 2024 semester I was selected as the command sergeant major for the battalion. In this position I worked closely with the battalion commander, and was responsible for the supervision of all battalion leadership and cadets (~150 people). I also was responsible for assisting with planning battalion events, including taking charge on all battalion ruck march planning and execution. For the Fall 2025 semester, I am serving as Alpha Company Commander. This means I am leading the development of the newest class of freshman (~60 people) into future Army Officers. I am responsible for planning all leadership labs and special events for the company, as well as coordinating personnel at all levels.

MISA allows me to attend workshops, meetings, employer panels, and other events that will help in my current and future employement searches. I recently attented a Linux workshop put on by the organization that introduced beginners to the use of Linux including install, terminal commands, and general use cases for the OS.

While I am a student at West Virginia University I am focused on doing well in classes, but also being involved and teaching myself new skills through experimentation. I am a member of Army ROTC, Pershing Rifles, and the Management Information Systems Association.