Fast track to cyber success: How an email changed a UTC student’s career trajectory

Trevor Lessenberry was an intern at PlayCore while a student in UTC’s Bachelor of Applied Science: Information Technology in Cybersecurity (BAS-IT CyS) program. Photo by Angela Foster.

Trevor Lessenberry was sitting on the beach during the summer of 2023, mobile phone in hand, when an email popped up and showed him his future.

The message described the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga accelerated Bachelor of Applied Science: Information Technology in Cybersecurity—or BAS-IT CyS—program, which launched in January 2023. The second cohort of the 12-month program was forming, to begin in August, just a few weeks away at the time.

“That was the first I had heard of it,” said Lessenberry, then a UTC junior majoring in computer science with a concentration in software systems. “I’m reading and, at first, I thought, ‘Nope, I’m just going to finish out software systems and see where that takes me,’ but then I see that you could do a full degree in one year.

“I had only one year left, and I see that the program also includes a paid internship, and that was very big to me. Because one of the worries I had was getting work experience that so many employers were looking for.”

Not to mention, he discovered through his studies that software systems is a field heavy on computer coding—probably his least favorite part of that undergraduate program.

“There’s a lot of things I liked, but coding is not one of them,” Lessenberry said. “It’s the internship element that persuaded me to switch, though.”

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As happens with many college students, Lessenberry’s path to his final academic destination took a few detours caused by trying out different majors.

In 2020, he graduated from high school in Lexington, Tennessee, situated midway between Nashville and Memphis. He headed off to Columbia (Tennessee) State Community College, about 50 miles south of Nashville, on a baseball scholarship. The centerfielder and sometime pitcher never got to take the field for the Columbia State Chargers, though. With the COVID-19 pandemic still in full swing and classes fully online, Lessenberry opted to return home.

“I never actually got to play baseball. COVID shut everything down,” he said, “I had family members struggling with COVID, so I went back to Lexington and online classes with Columbia State.”

Trevor Lessenberry

Meanwhile, Lessenberry’s older sister, Bailee, had been pursuing a double major—geology and biology—at UTC.

As she began her fourth and final year as a UTC student, her younger brother had also moved to Chattanooga. At Chattanooga State Community College, Lessenberry resumed his pursuit of an associate of science degree, completed it in 2022—then enrolled at UTC as a junior.

“I had changed majors multiple times,” he said. “Medical to business to computer science, and I had settled into computer science software systems in my junior year at UTC. I had finished that year when I got the BAS-IT email in 2023.

“I thought I’d just scan it, not expecting anything to be of interest. Then I noticed you could complete an entire degree in a year, and I had a year left—only four more classes in software systems—but the internship persuaded me to make the jump.”

Through required, paid internships in the community, the 12-month program gives students hands-on experience in addition to classroom instruction. Students attend class in the mornings and work weekdays from 1-5 p.m. at their respective companies.

While the pace is fast, so is time to completion.

“Because of its accelerated pace, the program could be very challenging for someone straight out of high school or community college,” Lessenberry said. “You have to develop very good time management skills. You have to prioritize assignments and anticipate deadlines.”

Lessenberry’s internship has been with PlayCore—a Chattanooga-headquartered company that designs, manufactures and builds playgrounds and recreation environments for customers around the world. The experience has been everything he hoped, and more than just hands-on experience.

“I was blessed to have an amazing internship with an amazing mentor who allowed me to be under his wing, follow him along and just learn everything I can,” Lessenberry said. “I’ve said to my bosses and to some of my professors that I’m learning as much at the internship, if not more, as I’m learning in class because I get to see what happens when we apply what we learn.

“We get the theoretical in class and the hands-on in the internship—and that makes it all come together.”

Maybe even better, Lessenberry already has a job waiting for him at PlayCore after he graduates in August.

“With cybersecurity, you can go in many different routes because there’s so many different aspects of cybersecurity,” he said. “There’s system security, network security, application security—it’s like a tree with many, many branches, so I do feel like it’s a field with a lot of opportunity now and over time.

“I’ve actually gotten a job offer from PlayCore as a result of the internship, and I am so incredibly thankful.”