Q: (Initially posted on February 14, 2003) FROM MENTEE MELISANGE O-B. IN MAUI, HI
Since I was young I was amazed by the NSA(National Security Agency).I still am! I would really like to join the Agency, but I don't know in want kind of field I would like to be in. I would like a position were I can organize, direct people,and use my creativity to get me there. I seriously don't know what I should do.......Can any mentors help with this question?

February 18, 2003
A: FROM MENTOR NATALIE GIVANS
The NSA has several lines of business, including protection of
communications and computers and analysis of signals intelligence.
Typical backgrounds are either engineering/computer science, or
analysis. Certainly, there are many people there in program management
and staff management positions who are also very creative - usually they
have grown up within the organization, but not always. If you would
like to talk to people who have worked there, we have quite a number in
our firm who used to work at the NSA and can talk to you more. Please contact GEM-SET@uic.edu if you would like to connect with prior NSA employees.
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A: FROM MENTOR CAROL TOMAN IN IL
I don't know very much about the NSA except that they employ people
with tremendous math skills for encryption research. The NSA loosely
sponsors a math contest for high school students and you can get more
information from http://www.nsa.gov/programs/mepp/usamts.html. It
might be an advantage to you in the future to participate in this
contest now. The math problems are a lot of fun even if you don't see
yourself as a math major in the future and don't actually enter the
contest.