history.html

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title: MCPA St. Louis - About
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    <h2 class="header">History of the Chapter</h2>
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The seeds of the Chapter were planted in June 2014 by a small group of junior Air Force Officers on Scott Air Force Base (AFB) in Illinois. With the standup of US Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) Cyber Mission Teams on the base, the group recognized the need for a professional organization with a cyber-focus.  We initially self-organized as a social group called the Cyber Professionals Club (CPC) where members could share information and collaborate over drinks every other week at the base club. We discussed long-term goals of providing cyber-focused training and education for the local community. 
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In November 2014, I was referred to the MCPA by a mentor that’s now serving as faculty at the Air Force Academy. Soon after joining, the shared goals of the CPC and MCPA became apparent. After coordinating with MCPA National leadership, we rebranded ourselves the MCPA St. Louis Chapter and I began serving as Chapter President.
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Given this new umbrella of nation-wide support and structure, the former CPC developed bylaws for the new Chapter and set realistic short-term goals. We focused on volunteering for local science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) related events, hosting local professional development events, and continuing our social gatherings at the club.
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One short year later, the St. Louis Chapter went from inception to being a prominent organization in the rapidly expanding St. Louis tech scene.  With the proceeds from our first major fundraising event, "Hack the Arch", the Chapter is planning to endow a scholarship fund to support local STEM education and we'll continue to keep you updated on the progress of the chapter here.
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    <h3>Former Chapter Leadership</h3>
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      <h5>Andrew Schnier, Co-Founder & President (2015 - 2016)</h5>
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        <p class="col s12 m9 l10">Andrew is a Cyber Officer with the United States Air Force. He earned his Bachelors in Mathematics, with a concentration in Computer Science, from the University of Iowa in 2013.</p>
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      <h5><a href="http://paullj1.com">Paul Jordan</a>, Co-Founder & President (2014 - 2015)</h5>
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        <p class="col s12 m9 l10">Paul is a Cyber Officer with the United States Air Force.  He earned his undergraduate degree in Computer Science from the University of Akron in Ohio in 2011.  Before entering the Air Force, Paul was a software engineer with a small Akron Ohio software development company where he managed, developed, and maintained several applications including a PHP/JavaScript web-app, a low level C data acquisition application, a C++ user facing application, and a data warehousing business intelligence application.</p>
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