Carroll College Launches Innovative Cybersecurity Program to Combat Digital Threats

At a glance

• Carroll College in Helena, Montana, announced a new cybersecurity major on March 6, 2025, starting in fall 2025.
• Program focuses on technical skills alongside ethics and critical thinking from Carroll’s liberal arts core.
• Partnership with Rize Education provides six online courses taught with faculty from other institutions.
• Hands-on experience includes ethical hacking and real-world projects.
• Graduates can also prepare for industry certifications such as CompTIA A+.

Carroll College Launches Innovative Cybersecurity Program to Combat Digital Threats

Carroll College, a small Catholic liberal arts college in Helena, Montana, is adding a cybersecurity major. Classes start in fall 2025. The program is run by the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science.

A liberal arts take on security

Dr. Ted Wendt, associate professor and chair of the department, described the program as a mix of technical training and a liberal arts focus on critical thinking and ethical decision-making. Students learn to assess threats and defend systems. They also practice ethical hacking to find weaknesses before criminals do. An earlier version of this article named a different person as program chair; we could not confirm that and have corrected it to match Carroll’s published announcement.

Partnerships Fuel Success

Six of the program’s courses are delivered online through a consortium partnership with Rize Education, with faculty from other institutions. An earlier version of this article described a partnership with Blackfoot Communications. Carroll’s announcement does not mention one, so we have corrected it.

Hands-On Learning: The Key to Readiness

The curriculum combines theory with hands-on projects. Carroll says graduates will be ready for roles such as information security analyst or threat intelligence analyst, and for audit and compliance jobs.

Aligning with National Efforts

The program launches as the country tries to close its cybersecurity workforce gap. According to CyberSeek, there are hundreds of thousands of unfilled cybersecurity jobs in the United States, and Carroll put the national figure at close to 460,000 in 2025. That is a big number. Small colleges like Carroll can help supply rural states such as Montana, where security talent is especially thin and where local employers often struggle to compete with salaries in bigger cities.

What it means for students

For students in Montana, the major offers a way into a high-demand field without leaving the state. Pairing it with certifications such as CompTIA A+ gives graduates something concrete to show employers.

Applications for fall 2025 run through Carroll’s regular admissions process.

Frank Jones, CISSP

Frank Jones has loved computers from the age of 13. Frank got his hacking career started when he downloaded a war dialing program that he used to detect dial up modems in his hometown of Chicago. Frank Jones now works as a JAVA coder and cyber security researcher.