Live from NBCUniversal!

Ashley Green ’23 has been a fan of NBC’s Saturday Night Live for as long as she can remember, so much so that, when Green was in the process of looking for internships, she couldn’t help but think: “Now that would be a great place to work.” There was a catch, though. Green’s background is in cybersecurity and criminology (both of which she is majoring in at Le Moyne), not sketch comedy (for which SNL is known). It wasn’t immediately obvious where, or even if, her academic expertise and lifelong passion for the Emmy Award-winning show might intersect. But something deep inside told her not to give up on the idea that they might somehow come together. Green kept digging and she discovered that NBCUniversal, the media and entertainment company that is home to SNL, was looking for media tech interns. She applied and was hired.

Now that is truly great timing – comedic or otherwise.

A Belleville, N.Y., native, Green spent the summer working with NBCUniversal’s vulnerability management team. She tracked down all of the company’s electronic devices and cloud accounts, looked for security vulnerabilities in them, and identified the best ways to respond to those weaknesses. As she undertook this work, Green drew on everything she had done over the course of her time on the Heights: her classes, her previous internship with the Le Moyne’s Security Operations Center, and her participation in the College’s Stempower and ERIE21 programs. Far from feeling that she was too inexperienced to work for a large organization like NBCUniversal, she was thrilled to discovered that her colleagues were happy to help guide her in this next step of her professional development and that she was making valuable contributions to a team she truly admired.

“It was a phenomenal experience,” she says.

As she looks toward the future, Green sees more clearly than ever that, in this day and age, every organization, from the largest multinational conglomerate to the smallest family owned business, needs to take its cybersecurity very seriously. New threats evolve every day. Still, she is optimistic about the future – and with good reason. Her time at Le Moyne has taught her to think critically, communicate effectively and work effectively with others, skills that are universal and which will serve her well for the rest of her career. Yes, she acknowledges, solving a problem as complex as a cybersecurity threat can seem daunting, but with skill, imagination and teamwork, that challenge can be met and new opportunities can be created.

“This is a really interesting time to be working in cybersecurity,” she said. “The opportunities are endless.”

According the Bureau of Labor Statics, the number of jobs in the field is expected to grow by as much as 31 percent over the next 10 years.

This story is part of a series on Le Moyne students who completed internships in a variety of fields, including politics, risk management and insurance, and media. Le Moyne’s Office of Career Advising and Development works closely with students to help them find these kinds of opportunities, which will serve them well post-graduation.