This past Wednesday, the Crooms AoIT Alumni Association's Board of Directors unanimously approved a measure to offer an annual grant to a Crooms AoIT sports team. The grant comes after Crooms AoIT Class of 2006 graduate Frank C. Bracco signed a four-year gift agreement with the Alumni Association. As part of the agreement, the Alumni Association will offer a grant of at least $250 to Crooms' athletic teams for at least the next four years.

"Although the amount of the grant may be small when compared to the overall expenses our athletic teams face, it is my hope this grant can provide some moral and financial support to the athletic activities that played a pivotal role in the development of so many Croomies - myself included," Bracco declared. Statewide budget cuts to education over the past several years have erased financial support for extracurriculars, which Bracco cited as a motivating factor for the gift. He also noted the shuttering of the Crooms AoIT Athletic Boosters as an issue that encouraged him to earmark his financial support for athletics.

Some members of the Alumni Association's Board of Directors saw the grant program as something long overdue for Crooms AoIT. "Considering the massive budget cuts for Seminole County Public Schools next year, this grant program can help Crooms' student organizations remain intact and strong,” stated Board member James “Brock” Mangus, Class of 2007. Mangus has been advocating for increased financial support for Crooms AoIT from his fellow alumni for the past several months.

The grant process will be overseen by a newly formed grant committee. Over the next several weeks, the committee will determine the criteria for the grant and will invite the physical education department and sporting teams at Crooms to file a request for funding. Membership on the grant committee is open to all alumni, but preference will be given to Alumni Association members. Individuals interested in serving on the grant committee should e-mail scholarship@croomsalumni.com.

The 2011 high school grades are finally out, and it's great news for Crooms Academy of Information Technology. Students at Crooms AoIT rose to the occasion and earned the school an 'A' grade for 2011. School grades are based on student performance and learning gains on the FCAT standardized test. Crooms AoIT is one of two high schools in Seminole County to have received an 'A' grade for four out of the past five years.

Spread some holiday cheer this winter season. For the next three people that join the Alumni Association before Christmas at the Orange Croomie or above level ($30/year or more) we will send you a $35 gift card for Wal-Mart while receiving all the other benefits of membership in the alumni association. You seriously cannot beat this deal; you can actually walk away having received more holiday cheer than you gave while still supporting a good cause. Join now at http://www.croomsalumni.com/join.

Crooms AoIT Class of 2006 graduate John Amirrezvani (pictured center with the tablet) competes in the 2011 CSAW Capture the Flag Competition

Crooms AoIT Class of 2006 graduate John Amirrezvani celebrated a major victory when he and his University of South Florida teammates traveled to the Polytechnic Institute of New York University's Cyber Security Awareness Week (CSAW) CyberSecurity Competition. Together, the USF team placed 4th in the nationally recognized CyberSecurity CSAW Capture the Flag competition.

The Capture the Flag competition is designed to evaluate application security skills. Competitors attack vulnerable applications and solve offensive challenges. Challenges are divided into technical categories and assigned point values based on how difficult they are. The CSAW CTF is loosely based on the DEFCON Capture the Flag competition.

As one of 12 finalists from around the global, the USF team had a lot prove: their team was the only Southern school and public university to compete in the finals, and they were also a defending finalist from last year. Students – from high school level to PhD candidates – competed in multiple stages of the event, and it all came down to these finalists, which would compete for 24 hours. When the dust settled, John and his USF colleagues were in a three-way tie for 3rd with teams from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After the tiebreaker, USF's team ended the competition in 4th – ahead of the MIT team.

This year marked the eighth time NYU-Poly has hosted the CyberSecuirty Competition and the second time John has been a finalist. NYU-Poly is the perfect battleground for these emerging leaders in cybersecurity. NYU-Poly’s Information Systems and Security (ISIS) Laboratory is funded by the National Science Foundation, a designated Center of Excellence in Information Assurance Research and in Education by the National Security Agency, and is a renowned member of the cybersecurity community.