The final day of Autism Acceptance Month marked a milestone worth celebrating for Aspiritech Academy.
On the evening of April 30, 2026, at Aspiritech’s Evanston headquarters, apprentices, employer partners, elected officials, military veterans and cybersecurity professionals gathered to celebrate something that, until recently, didn’t exist: a registered apprenticeship program built from the ground up by autistic adults for neurodivergent individuals pursuing careers in cybersecurity.
The occasion was National Apprenticeship Week 2026 and the commemoration of Aspiritech Academy’s first full year as a U.S. Department of Labor Registered Apprenticeship. It also highlighted the official launch of a permanent, state-of-the-art Cyber Range that will power the program for years to come.
The evening opened with remarks from Aspiritech CEO Tara May, who welcomed guests before playing a video message from Illinois Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton that signaled our work resonates far beyond the nonprofit’s Evanston headquarters.
“Apprenticeship is a powerful tool for building an economy that works for everyone,” Lt. Governor Stratton said in her message. “It connects people to meaningful careers in industries that power our daily lives, from trade and healthcare to technology and cybersecurity.”
Lt. Governor Stratton spoke directly to what Aspiritech’s program represents: workforce development built on intentional, neuroinclusive system design. More than 80% of autistic adults are unemployed or underemployed not for a lack of talent, she noted, but a lack of intentional pathways. “Neurodiversity isn’t a liability. It’s an asset. And when we build systems that recognize this fact, everyone wins: individuals, families and our broader economy.”
The state official closed with a congratulations to the Aspiritech team: “You’re proving that workforce development and workplace inclusion aren’t competing goals. They’re the same goal.”
Tara May then introduced Illinois House Majority Leader Robyn Gabel, who also represents Evanston in the state legislature and is a fitting champion for a program developed in the community she serves.
Representative Gabel spoke about the systemic failures that have historically shut autistic adults out of the workforce, and what it means when those systems are deliberately redesigned.
“The 80%+ unemployment and underemployment rate for autistic adults is a policy failure, not an individual one,” she said. “It reflects systems that weren’t designed with neurodivergent people in mind.”
She grounded that failure in the CDC’s April 2025 report statistic that 1 in 31 children in the U.S. is now diagnosed as autistic. This figure that makes the urgency of building better pathways a policy imperative. The pipeline of people who need these opportunities is growing. Policy needs to build ahead of it.
Representative Gabel also contextualized the achievement within Illinois’ broader apprenticeship landscape. Illinois currently has approximately 22,000 active registered apprentices across 424 programs, but 85% of those are in construction. Cybersecurity apprenticeships represent a small fraction of the total. There is enormous room and real need to grow tech apprenticeships, specifically for communities with barriers to traditional employment.
She was equally direct about what the room represented: “Every person in this room who holds an apprenticeship credential represents a system working the way it should. That’s still the exception, not the rule.”
Her presence and her words reinforced that the work Aspiritech is doing isn’t operating on the margins. Rather, it’s at the center of a larger conversation about economic equity and what it takes to build systems that actually include everyone. Apprenticeship, she noted, is one of the most bipartisan workforce tools available, and expanding it into tech and cybersecurity should be an easy yes across the aisle.
Colonel Mark Tellier, US Army (Ret.) and CEO of Colt Cybersecurity Consultants, a key architect of apprenticeship curriculum, drew a throughline between his experience in combat and the critical importance of cybersecurity today.
Col. Tellier emphasized that the integrity of the Department of Defense supply chain, the safety of servicemembers in the field and the resilience of national infrastructure all depend on people who deeply understand federal cybersecurity standards, including NIST, CMMC and the governance frameworks that protect sensitive national security data. Workforce diversity in cybersecurity is also a national security issue: Diverse teams catch more, and miss less.
That’s exactly what Aspiritech’s curriculum is designed to produce. “The need for cybersecurity talent that truly understands federal standards like NIST and CMMC is at an all-time high,” Col. Tellier has said. “We developed a curriculum that specifically prepares these apprentices to navigate the rigorous governance and regulatory requirements of the federal sector.”
The numbers underscore the urgency: There are more than 470,000 unfilled cybersecurity positions in the U.S., with 33% job growth projected through 2034. The industry cannot afford to exclude any talent pool, especially one that is, as Col. Tellier put it, actively well-suited to the work. Neurodivergent professionals often bring exceptional pattern recognition and an eye for detail that maps directly onto what cybersecurity demands.
No event about the program would be complete without hearing from the people living it. Two Aspiritech apprentices, Eric States and Jacob Bielski, shared their experiences. Their words were among the most powerful of the evening.
Eric, who joined in the program’s pilot cohort (which launched September 15, 2025), put it simply: “I knew I wanted to be in cybersecurity, but I wasn’t sure how to make it happen. The Academy felt like a second chance. This isn’t just training; it’s a plan for my future.”
Their presence at the podium was confident and credentialed, a proof of concept of a clear path forward.
One of the most tangible announcements of the evening was the permanent installation of a Cyber Range at Aspiritech’s Evanston headquarters, built in partnership with the Wisconsin Cyber Threat Response Alliance (WICTRA).
Jerry Eastman, LTC, US Army (Ret.) and President, CEO and Founder of WICTRA helped build the range. At the April 30 event, he spoke about what it means to bring this infrastructure to a permanent home.
WICTRA’s mission has long included mobile cyber ranges for training and community-based threat response. The Evanston installation represents a new chapter in the form of a dedicated, scalable training environment where Aspiritech apprentices can practice defending against real-world threats in a safe, sandboxed setting. Eastman also highlighted work from the Arizona Cyber Warfare Range as an example of the advanced, hands-on training ecosystems that programs like Aspiritech Academy are now connected to.
“We are incredibly proud to partner with Aspiritech to empower this next generation of cyber professionals,” Eastman said. “Our mission is to protect our communities from digital threats, and we do that best when we have a diverse, skilled workforce on the front lines.”
The range features high-performance servers and switches that mimic complex enterprise environments. These real-world simulations bridge the gap between classroom learning and professional readiness. It’s the hands-on training hub for an Aspiritech Academy cybersecurity program that combines free technical training, paid on-the-job experience (starting at $20.55/hr and scaling to $34.25/hr at completion), and industry-recognized certifications including CompTIA Security+.
Over the course of 2,000 hours, apprentices build skills across threat analysis, network security, incident response, digital forensics, identity and access management and the federal CMMC compliance framework. Participants come away ready to work with government contractors and agencies from day one.
Tanika Edmonds, Aspiritech’s VP of Strategic Partnerships, closed the evening with a challenge to employers everywhere.
“With experienced workers retiring and a decades-long skills gap ahead, we need brilliant minds who think differently and anticipate change,” she said. “I challenge employers to ask how they can restructure to stay competitive, because the organizations that will thrive in the future will be those who made the decision today, to see what others would not.”
It’s a call that carries urgency. The cybersecurity industry faces a well-documented and growing talent shortage. The autistic community faces an equally well-documented employment crisis. Aspiritech Academy exists at the intersection of those two realities and is proving, year by year and cohort by cohort, that there is a better way forward.
Aspiritech Academy’s pilot cohort has completed its first year. More cohorts are planned for 2026, with upcoming start dates in July and October. The program’s cyber range is live and its curriculum is battle-tested and federally aligned. The apprentices have begun building real careers in fulfilling tech roles.
And this is just the beginning.
If you’re an employer interested in partnering with Aspiritech Academy, or a neurodivergent adult in Illinois curious about a career in cybersecurity, we’d love to hear from you. Visit our Cybersecurity Program & Apprenticeship page to reach out and learn more.
