From meta tags to Moneyball: CIC intern gets opportunity with St. Louis Cardinals

By Sean Green | STRIKEWERX Marketing and Communication Director

BOSSIER CITY, La. — A Cyber Innovation Center (CIC) intern has parlayed his experience and education at Louisiana Tech University into a career in Major League Baseball.

Mason Kelley is transitioning from the CIC development team to the St. Louis Cardinals organization as an analyst.

“I didn’t walk into this job, it took me building up my skills at Louisiana Tech and the CIC to land this opportunity,” Mason said. “What I learned in school has been an important foundation, and working at the CIC gave me experience with specific tools and languages that helped me land this opportunity.”

Mason started his internship at the CIC in summer of 2023 with a focus on web development for the Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) Portal. The Portal is a new platform that hosts multiple software capabilities and utilizes AFGSC data to support modernization efforts for the command.

The CIC, through a Partnership Intermediary Agreement with AFGSC, provides services spanning cloud, cybersecurity, data management consulting, data analytics including artificial intelligence and machine learning, software development, and more.

Mason worked alongside four fellow interns and college Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps cadets from across the country while at the CIC. He wrote several different visual data representations for the command.

Mason, who had always been interested in working in sports, applied because his internship at the CIC gave him confidence that he was qualified for the job.

“A lot of the skills I learned at the CIC — making software, programming languages, and technologies — will be used in my new career,” he said.

When data science students are considering internship opportunities, Mason notes that the CIC is a welcoming environment that offers a lot of useful experience.

“You have to do something above the minimum to make yourself attractive to employers — it’s not enough just enough to get degree, you have to put extra effort into gaining real world skills,” Mason said. “At the CIC, beyond the skill building, you get the unique opportunity to help the CIC’s mission of supporting AFGSC.”

Internships are available for summer 2024. Computer science students with a concentration in web development and data analytics can apply by emailing Kyle Branch, data analytics manager, at kyle.branch@cyber.org.