This presentation describes how the team of Strayer University student coders won 5th place out of over 400 participating schools in the 2022 NSA Codebreaker Challenge, a hyper-authentic learning experience in which teams from across the country compete to develop successful defenses to real-time cybersecurity threats. Lessons are drawn into how students from non-traditional and underserved communities can overcome key challenges to developing the coding, engineering, strategic planning, and problem-solving skillsets needed for today’s IT workplace. Topics of focus include Strayer’s practices for recruiting, coaching, and forging a strong esprit de corps for the codebreaker team, using real-world collaboration tools designed to build camaraderie and group ownership. Insights are also offered into how students mastered applying the advanced technical skills demanded by the high level of difficulty the Codebreaker Challenge entails, including complex techniques for reverse engineering, malicious code obfuscation, cryptography, and infrastructure penetration testing.