St John’s partners with Latin American universities on cybersecurity education initiative
From late August to December 2025, St. John’s University’s M.S. in Cyber and Information Security program collaborated with Pontifical Catholic University (PUC) in Brazil and Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras (UNAH) through the Global Online Learning Exchange Research Experience (GOLE-RE). This initiative aimed to strengthen cyber security research across the Americas and represents the conclusion of a two-year international effort focused on academic exchange and building regional cyber security research capacity.
The first part of this initiative was a Fulbright Grant-supported partnership between St. John’s University (SJU) and UNAH, led by Dr. Elías Leonardo García Urquía from UNAH Engineering Faculty and Dr. Suzanna Schmeelk. The U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, facilitated this phase through a Department of State-funded Fulbright Specialist Program, which provided U.S. expertise for developing a Master’s in Cyber Security at UNAH. The program helped include Central America in the GOLE-RE initiative, expanding its goal to reinforce international research collaborations that enhance security throughout the United States and the wider Americas.
The second component was developed earlier by Dr. Schmeelk with support from St. John’s University Study Abroad Virtual Exchange Program (GOLE), coordinated by Dr. Zoe Petropoulou and Ian M. August. This virtual study-abroad effort required over a year of preparation to enable ongoing cyber security collaboration with PUC in São Paulo, Brazil, led by Drs. Carlos Moreira, Guilherme Oliveira, Schmeelk, and faculty from PUC Engineering.
Together these efforts created a trilateral GOLE-RE partnership that connected South, Central, and North America for cyber security research collaboration.
Due to differences in time zones among SJU, PUC, and UNAH—and because St. John’s operates programs both online and on campus—student teams worked across four time zones using Spanish, Portuguese, and English as working languages.
A key focus of the GOLE-RE project was analysis of an insider-threat breach involving Brazil’s PIX instant-payment system—a case where attackers compromised C&M Software rather than PIX directly by using social engineering tactics to obtain privileged credentials for unauthorized transfers.
Multinational student teams recommended mitigation strategies such as improved identity-access controls, behavioral monitoring systems, better third-party risk assessments, and employee training against recruitment-based social engineering attacks. Deliverables included secure coding guidelines available in three languages; presentation materials; video components; and blogs describing their research experience.
Throughout the project students collaborated both synchronously and asynchronously while developing communication skills needed for global teamwork under linguistic and time-zone challenges. Faculty at all three universities observed that students gained deeper understanding of how Brazil, Honduras, and the United States each address cyber security governance.
By December 2025 students reported greater confidence analyzing international cyber incidents—including insider threats—and contributing within multilingual distributed teams: “This GOLE-RE initiative demonstrates the transformative impact of sustained international partnerships in preparing cyber security professionals capable of safeguarding organizations and citizens across an interconnected hemisphere.”
St. John’s University supports multicultural local and global initiatives through its centers according to its official website. The university maintains campuses in Queens and Manhattan as well as sites abroad including Rome, Paris, and Limerick (source). It is affiliated with the Vincentian Community (source) as a Catholic institution dedicated to liberal arts education (source), offering more than 100 undergraduate majors across six schools (source). Rev. Brian J. Shanley O.P., serves as president (source).
Faculty Lead: Dr. Suzanna Schmeelk
Contributing Team:
Dr. Zoe Petropoulou
Ian M. August
Dr. Geoff Dick
Susan Peterson
Greg Bruhn
Cyber Security Graduate Students:
Cassey Burrell
Miguel Guerrero
Brianna Andrea Mendiola
Gulnaz Mukanbetova
Dominick Vandenberge
Monique Crowther
Devanie D Gajadar
John Pedone
Adam Reilly
Erhan Sahin
Muhammad Ali Yousaf
Nathanael Dorsey
Augustine Ibeh
Joeal James
Samuel Thamrin
Oscar Xu
Peter Thorson Andrews
Brian Fitzgerald
Troy Georges
Shalisa McKenzie-McAulay
Daniel O Wilson-Eche
Schuyler Emanuele Winston
Faculty Leads at PUC:
Dr. Carlos Moreira
Dr. Guilherme Oliveira
Contributing Team: PUC Engineering Faculty
Cyber Security Students:
Calebe Foresti de Carvalho Pierozzi
Guilherme Alves Tavares
Kaun Messias
Vinícius Pereira de Castro
Lucas Gomez Machado
Gabriel Figueiredo Spaziante
Vitor Hugo Alvarenga Alves
Diego Mauad Peixoto
Débora Biguzzi
Faculty Lead at UNAH: Dr. Elías Leonardo García Urquía
Contributing Team: UNAH Engineering Faculty
Cyber Security Students:
Gerardo Andree Salinas
Hogla Sarahi Calix Gamez
Juan Carlos Flores Trujillo
Pablo Cesar Flores
José Roberto Martínez Morales
Bryan Daniel Gallardo Rodrigues
Jorge Adalberto Cantarero
Eros Daniel Rivera Buezo
Luis Daniel Díaz Cáceres
