InfoSci Voices: Jesse Ceja, BSCO ’28 Finds Purpose in Cybersecurity Internship with Tucson Electric Power

  
Jesse Ceja expected cybersecurity to be about networks, alerts and protecting systems from behind a computer screen.

Then a visit to Tucson Electric Power changed his perspective.

Walking through TEP’s operations center, Jesse—a University of Arizona Bachelor of Science in Cyber Operations student and member of the Pride of Arizona marching band—saw specialists monitoring systems and working together to help keep critical infrastructure running across Southern Arizona.

“That’s when it clicked,” he says. “There was a lot more to this work than I had imagined.”

The visit eventually led to a cybersecurity internship with TEP, where Jesse now supports the endpoint security program and helps educate others about security best practices.

The experience also showed him the human side of cybersecurity.

“Every system we help protect connects to something people depend on,” Jesse says. “Hospitals need power. Water systems need power. Communities rely on critical infrastructure every single day.”

For Jesse, the internship has helped connect classroom learning with a larger sense of purpose.

“For the first time, I felt that I wasn’t just learning about cybersecurity,” he says. “I was contributing to it.”

That perspective is at the center of the latest installment of InfoSci Voices, the College of Information Science video series spotlighting the people, ideas and experiences shaping the future of information science.

“At its core, cybersecurity has a strong human element,” Jesse says. “It’s people serving people.”
  

Watch Jesse's story above and explore future episodes of InfoSci Voices at infosci.arizona.edu/voices.