Ava’s unconventional journey to the Cyber Battle Australia Grand Final

Published: 21 Jul 2026

After Ava Mpinga dropped out of high school, she thought she was at a dead end. Now, she’s preparing to line up amongst the nation’s most talented cyber security students in the Cyber Battle Australia Grand Final this Saturday.

The 22-year-old secured her place in the Grand Final alongside her good friend and teammate Anubhav Karki after the pair successfully battled through a gruelling four-hour challenge to qualify.

“It feels pretty good representing the ACT - no pressure at all whatsoever,” Ava laughed. “It been a bit of a whirlwind because I asked myself, ‘how did I get here?’ - especially considering how little I knew about cyber security even a couple of years before this.”

Ava’s journey to the Grand Final has been anything but conventional as she prepares to compete against university and vocational education students from across the country.

“I had a lot of struggles in high school,” Ava said. “Some of them were due to ADHD - which I didn’t know. I just thought I sucked at school and it’s very easy to continue in that pattern. It can be tough to overcome that sort of mindset that’s been ingrained in you from a young age.”

While stacking shelves in her retail job after school, Ava began thinking about cyber until it was an obsession she could no longer ignore.

“All I could think about while working in retail was computers, which was a really good metric,” Ava said. “Even throughout everything, I was still coming back to cyber security as a concept.”

Halfway through 2025, Ava decided to study full-time at CIT as she began her Certificate IV in Cyber Security and with the support of her educators hasn’t looked back.

“It took me a while to understand all the concepts of cyber security because it’s such a vast field, but I eventually got to a point where it all clicked and I could comfortably enter something like Cyber Battle,” Ava said. “I would not have heard about Cyber Battle if it wasn’t for my teachers.

“They provide a lot of support in that regard. They want everyone to have an equal go and an equal shot.”

In preparation for the Grand Final, Ava is leaving nothing to chance.

“I take it to the extreme,” Ava said. “I’m re-learning some computer architecture stuff which is unnecessary, but everything is a competitive advantage.”

The Grand Final will also mark another significant milestone for Ava as she wraps up her study at CIT before beginning her Bachelor of Engineering at the University of Canberra and pursuing a career in the industry.

“I’m lucky to live in a place where any kind of pathway is accommodated for,” Ava said. “As someone that’s going to be a mature-aged student, it was very comforting to know I could do something like this.”

The Cyber Battle Australia Grand Final takes place on Saturday 25 July and is a six hour Capture the Flag event hosted at multiple venues around the country.