Brivo has $2,500 scholarships for HBCU students interested in security

A Maryland company is making a new $2,500 scholarship available to students seeking to pursue studies in the security industry at Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Hispanic Serving Institutions in Maryland and D.C.

Called the Brivo NextGen Scholarship Program, it will support two students seeking to study marketing, engineering or business, with a specific interest in security.

Brivo, a cloud-based access control and smart building technologies company headquartered in Bethesda, is seeking to provide opportunity for people from groups that underrepresented in the field of security, which encompasses protecting both data and buildings.

“Diversity in the security industry is a societal and business imperative because cyber and physical security impacts every one of us,” said Steve Van Till, founder and CEO of Brivo, in a statement. “We look forward to helping underrepresented students build careers in the security industry and hope the NextGen Scholarship Program plays an impactful role in fueling positive change.”

Applications are open to students who have previously attended community colleges or undergraduate four-year institutions in Maryland and D.C. or are looking to re-enroll. It also available to current students at

• Howard University in D.C.
• Montgomery College in Rockville
• Morgan State University in Baltimore
• University of Maryland, Baltimore County 
• Towson University

Cybersecurity plays a big role in the region’s economy, given proximity to federal installations and labs that are at the center of the nation’s effort to protect and defend data from enemies. As an industry, it is one that perennially suffers from a gap between open jobs and workers who are quailified to fill them. Along with housing research expertise, the schools listed above play a role in educating the next generation of talent.

For the scholarship, those interested have until August 31 to submit an application and 500-750 word personal essay about how they plan to promote diversity in the security industry. Recipients will be announced on September 27.

Apply by August 31

Alongside the scholarship, Brivo said it also recently expanded its internship program for students interested in data science, marketing, and software engineering roles. It hired one of the eight interns in a software engineering role.

Donte Kirby is a 2020-2022 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Project that pairs young journalists with local newsrooms. This position is supported by the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation.