Michael Furlough is already thinking several moves ahead, mapping out his future like a well-designed network.
A dual-enrolled student at Beaufort County Community College and Beaufort County Early College High School, Furlough is on track to graduate with multiple associate degrees while working in information technology through the NC Works NextGen Work Experience program. He approaches education as strategy, understanding how each decision shapes the next opportunity.
“You learn a lot of cause and effect and what not to do,” Furlough said. “From there on, you just develop a mindset of strategical thinking.”
From Curiosity to Competence
Furlough’s interest in technology began in fifth grade at Chocowinity Middle School, where he joined a student tech team led by media coordinator Lisa Baker. Instead of walking him through solutions, Baker encouraged independence.
“She had the mentality of, ‘I’m not going to show you how to do it, because you’ve got to learn,’” he said.
By middle school, he was repairing dozens of broken student laptops during the summer, replacing screens, keyboards, Wi Fi cards and internal wiring. Curiosity became skill. He later interned with Beaufort County Schools’ technology department, helping expand student tech teams and presenting at the NC TIES technology conference to share the model with schools across eastern North Carolina.
Hands-On Experience Through NC Works NextGen
Now, through NC Works NextGen, Furlough works in the IT department at Beaufort CCC. He assists with troubleshooting, installs and terminates ethernet cables, and supports infrastructure projects across campus, including network connections in new facilities.
The experience reinforced an important lesson. Technology is about systems.
“If there’s a problem at work, I go home and research it,” he said. “A lot of times the challenges here translate into the bigger world.”
When a nationwide CrowdStrike software failure disrupted airports, schools and businesses, Furlough and the IT team traveled campus to campus removing faulty updates and restoring systems across all 13 schools in Beaufort County.
“It wasn’t complicated once we figured it out,” he said. “It was just time consuming and tedious. But that’s part of it.”
Working within institutional policies also deepened his understanding of cybersecurity.
“It’s not about trust,” he said. “It’s about policy. In cybersecurity, one small mistake can create a big vulnerability.”
Academic Focus and Future Plans
Furlough is completing Associate in Arts and Associate in Science degrees along with a certificate in Information Technology. He has taken programming courses in C++ and Java and studied business information systems, building both technical depth and range.
After graduation, he plans to attend Pitt Community College for a cybersecurity program before transferring to East Carolina University. His long-term goal is to become a Cyber Effects Officer in the U.S. Air Force or Navy, leading teams that defend and secure digital infrastructure.
“The higher you go, the more leadership and strategy is involved,” he said. “I want to understand the networking, the support, the cybersecurity, all of it.”
He hopes to later transition into public or private sector cybersecurity work and eventually launch his own consulting firm.
“Cybersecurity is needed everywhere,” he said. “Airports, utilities, colleges, hospitals. It’s all connected.”
Resilience and Perspective
Between the ages of three and 18, Furlough moved more than 30 times, attending multiple schools across Beaufort and Pitt counties. Each transition brought new environments and expectations.
“You start thinking on your feet,” he said. “You learn different teaching styles. You learn different environments. You decide what kind of person you want to be.”
The experience strengthened his resilience and sharpened his strategic thinking. He understood early that academic performance in middle school would influence early college admission, and that early college would shape the next phase.
As a young technician in a field often dominated by adults, he has sometimes felt the need to prove himself.
“Just because I’m 18 doesn’t mean I don’t know what I’m doing,” he said. “There’s a lot of proving yourself everywhere you go.”
On campus, he has found mentors and peers who share his curiosity. He has also seen younger students follow the pathway he helped establish.
Building What Comes Next
Outside of class and work, Furlough experiments with automation projects, virtual machines and home server setups. He repairs family computers and explores open-source systems, staying mindful of ethical boundaries.
“There’s a lot of gray areas in IT,” he said. “You have to stay between the lines.”
His curiosity spans networking, cybersecurity, engineering and systems design. He wants to understand how everything connects.
At Beaufort CCC, that curiosity is cultivated. For Michael Furlough, cables, code and certifications are tools. He is building a foundation strong enough to carry him wherever the next challenge leads.