RichmondCC IT Student Competes in Cyber Challenge

July 31, 2026 - Richmond Community College Information Technology student Houston Almond was just one of 45 participants selected from community colleges across the Carolina Cyber Network to compete in the CCN × MetLife Summer Cyber Invitational – Live Fire Cyber Competition held June 2 in Cary, N.C.

Almond’s team placed third in the challenge, which simulated real-world cyberattacks that tested the participants’ abilities to identify threats, analyze incidents, contain attacks and restore operations.

The invitational provided students with an immersive experience powered by Cyberbit, allowing competitors to work in a realistic cybersecurity environment while connecting directly with professionals from MetLife’s global cybersecurity organization and learning about career opportunities.

For Almond, a student in RichmondCC’s Associate of Applied Science in Information Technology program with a concentration in Cybersecurity, the competition was a lot of fun.

“The Live Fire Challenge had us working in a simulated Security Operations Center environment investigating security events, doing Security Information and Event Management-based triage and threat hunting, analyzing logs, configuring Palo Alto firewall rules, and running through full incident response workflows. Prior to the competition, they opened a training area where competitors could learn and practice with the tools that we would be using in the competition,” Houston said.

Beyond the technical experience, Almond said the networking opportunities he gained at the event were equally valuable. He was able to connect with students from other colleges and meet cybersecurity professionals and MetLife leaders. He even had the opportunity to briefly meet the company’s Chief Information Security Officer.

His advisor at RichmondCC, Cyber Security instructor Brian Goodman, played a key role in encouraging him to participate in the cyber challenge.

“He always reminds us that real-life networking is as important as routing and switching,” Almond said.

Almond’s path to studying cybersecurity has been anything but straight. Prior to COVID, he was working as a chef a Caribbean fusion restaurant In Asheville. The restaurant shut down during the pandemic, and Almond relocated to Charlotte to look for a new job. He was hired as entry level technician at Metrotech, a manufacturer of automotive care chemicals, detail services, and finance/insurance products for car and RV dealerships.

“I could not help but see the symmetry in the two seemingly unrelated environments. The same things that made me successful in the kitchen propelled me forward at Metrotech,” Almond said. “Organization, dependability, maintaining a standard of quality, and communication across different departments were things that I had drilled into me when I was working in a kitchen.”

Within a year, he went from entry level employee to the account manager of his district in Charlotte.

“That really got me thinking. What was I capable of? Had I been selling myself short?” Almond said.

In 2025, he moved back home to Richmond County and got a job cooking at Pinehurst Country Club. He also enrolled in the Information Technology program at RichmondCC.

“I really wanted to do something in IT because I knew that I did not understand the technical nature of the modern world as deeply as I felt was necessary. It was almost like I knew I did not know what made the ‘lightbulb’ come on and that made me curious,” he said.

After his first semester, he was hired by RichmondCC’s IT Department to be an Exam Proctor/IT Lab Support intern, so he quit his job at the country club.

In his internship, he supports the testing center’s operations and testing platforms.

“Day to day, I troubleshoot hardware, software, login, and networking issues for students and staff, and I monitor server-side logs to diagnose connectivity and access problems affecting the testing platforms. I also built Python-based tools to generate branded PDF quick-reference guides for the different testing platforms, and trained coworkers to build and maintain similar resources,” Almond said. “It has been a perfectly paced introduction to handling sensitive data on a daily basis.”

Almond loves the work because it touches on things that are important to him, organization and routine, but he also enjoys helping the people coming in for testing.

“It is always nice to celebrate with someone when they finally pass the exam that had been kicking their butt for a few months,” he said. 

Almond will graduate from RichmondCC this coming December. He will be applying for entry level roles in cybersecurity, networking, systems administration, or security operations. He also plans to transfer to North Carolina A&T State University and enroll in the Bachelor of Science in Artificial Intelligence program.

“Long term, I would Like to start my own contracting firm that creates local AI models for small institutions that handle data so sensitive that they cannot afford to trust a company like OpenAI or Anthropic,” Almond said.

Looking back at where he once was and where he is now, Almond realizes he has worn a lot of hats throughout his life and that each one was a building block.

“Just like the symmetry I saw between working in a kitchen to working in a body shop, at RichmondCC, I see the same symmetry that I saw in the body shops at Metrotech. It is really reassuring to know that those years were not wasted,” he said. “It makes me think a lot more deeply about the value that we give to different types of work.”