Determination and hard work has always been at the heart of Leo Christen’s work. After graduation from Campbell County High School and a year and a half of studying nursing, Christen acted upon his true calling.
“After a year and a half, I was like ‘nah, I still really want to go into the military,’” Christen said. “So I went to the military in 2011.”
Christen comes from a family of military service. Aunts, uncles, grandparents all made up a legacy that Leo wanted to continue, but it was also acting upon a sense of duty that inspired his service.
“I also had that sense of pride and country and duty and wanted to be a part of something bigger,” Christen said. “I had no expectations of traveling. I was stateside the whole time.”
Christen enlisted in the United States Army National Guard in 2011. When he left the military in 2013, Christen decided to go back to school in the Gateway2NKU program, where he went in with general studies but began taking classes in computer science. But that program decision would soon change.
“I had that sense of pride and country and duty and wanted to be a part of something bigger."
Fast forward to late 2014. Imagine going into your bank account and seeing significantly less money than you know you have - only to find out that your identity has been stolen.
For Christen, his story of identity theft starts at a gas station - the station he always went to. After getting gas, he noticed his bank card was being used outside of the Greater Cincinnati area.
“What had happened is you could see the person who skimmed this, they lived in Florida apparently, but you could see them traveling back from the Greater Cincinnati area to Florida because in Tennessee, you could see they filled up for $90,” Christen said. “In Georgia, they stopped and bought $800-$900 in new tires from Tire Discounters. They spent $1,000 or more. Then they got back to Florida and spent $50 at Publix. Then it stopped, by then I caught it and stopped it.”
That experience is only part of the reason Christen made the decision to switch his major to cybersecurity. He recalls a phone call from his grandfather.
“Some scammer had called and said that your son, your grandson was in jail and they needed to be bonded out,” Christen says.
This scam of the elderly or older adults is a common one - they are told their child or grandchild or another loved one has been arrested. The scammer says that person needs to be bonded out and instructs the person to send money to a certain address or virtual app.
With the scams and his sense of duty stemming from his work in service to the country, Christen wanted to take his career in a new direction and enrolled and took a cybersecurity fundamentals course, thanks to the guidance and direction from Dr. Maureen Doyle and the team in the College of Informatics.
“Any time I needed to talk, she would be there to help or offer advice,” Christen recalls about Dr. Doyle. “She kind of played the advisor role, in a sense. Just there every step of the way and was able to help me and not let me get down on myself. She said ‘find something you truly love."
The cybersecurity program at NKU has opened opportunities for Christen that were previously not on his radar. Kroger offered him an opportunity to be a cybersecurity intern in the Security Operations Center, which he accepted. But it hasn’t been easy as a non-traditional student.
“The best advice is basically there are going to be some hard times,” Christen says. “There are going to be late nights. Whether I work full-time or part-time. A lot of my nights are to go to sleep at 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. then wake up at 8 a.m. Never give up on what you truly love. I’m always going to give it my all. As cliche as it sounds, it’s really important.”
Just as Christen sets to graduate, he has found something he truly loves and wants to let people know that it’s never too late to go back to school.
“I want to do well, learn as much as I can, get as much out of NKU and my education as I can,” Christen said. “I’m not the traditional age. I’m married. We have one daughter. I’ll continue to do it because I want to provide for my family once I’m finished. I'm a paid intern, but that’s not forever. Help them, help my family, that drives my success.”
