I didn’t know I had been robbed until months later.

​

The $2,000 I had worked hard to save—earnings from tutoring, small investments, even the scammer’s so-called “payment”—was gone. My interest in cybersecurity began the moment I became a victim of a cyber scam.

​

Since my first year of high school, I had tutored students of all ages in mathematics, using tutors.com to reach more clients. After two years of success, I connected with someone who claimed to be a parent looking for Algebra tutoring. We had lengthy discussions, and I even received an advanced payment. I deposited the check into my Roth IRA. But when the tutoring kept getting delayed and the person disappeared, I learned months later that my account had been closed due to fraud.

​

While this was painful, I was fortunate: many victims of cyber scams lose their life savings or face even more severe exploitation. For me, it was a turning point. I became determined to understand the policy gaps that allow digital exploitation to persist. That’s why I pursued two degrees at USC, in Cybersecurity and Public Policy, with a focus on data analytics.

​

Project SafeWeb began as a personal commitment to digital safety and survivor support. In my sophomore year, I volunteered with the Poiema Foundation, a nonprofit supporting survivors of sex trafficking, where I saw how AI and cyber intelligence tools could help locate missing persons. That experience opened my eyes to both the dangers of online exploitation and the potential of technology to protect vulnerable communities.

​

Motivated to bring this awareness to my peers, I applied for USC’s Belle Vivian Scholarship. In spring 2024, I was awarded the scholarship and partnered with the Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention Center to launch USC’s first campus-wide event on sex trafficking prevention and digital self-defense. Wanting to expand the initiative, I applied for the Strauss Scholarship that same semester. I became a finalist, but did not receive it.

​

I didn’t give up. During my junior year, while interning with the Traverse Project, a nonprofit using data intelligence to disrupt trafficking networks, I refined the program’s scope and reapplied. In spring 2025, I was awarded $15,000 through the Strauss Scholarship to formally launch Project SafeWeb.

​

This initiative is not just about raising awareness. It’s about equipping young people with the tools to navigate the internet safely and uplifting the organizations making a real impact in this fight.

​

---- Naya Dukkipati, Founder and Director