Adhering to the advice of their assigned mentors, coupled with the confidence they get from contacts in the field and among peers, nine community colleges participating in the national
MentorLinks program are making significant strides in improving or creating their technician education programs.
By following the recommendation of its mentor to focus on energy efficiency rather than to start a wind energy program, WVU-Parkersburg had a head start on securing new funds and becoming a regional leader in teaching energy efficiency, said David Thompson, chair of the college’s technology division.
Mentor Roger Ebbage, an instructor at
Lane Community College (Oregon) who teaches about energy efficiency and renewable technologies, urged Thompson to incorporate energy efficiency into technician education programs and focus on solar energy when they first met at a 2008 MentorLinks meeting. Ebbage was concerned about the sustainability of the wind energy program that Thompson had planned to start.
The shift of focus helped the college receive a $220,000 grant from the
West Virginia Community and Technical College System last spring to develop a green jobs career path for energy technology and sustainability. In addition to helping create the state’s model program, the grant covers a faculty development resource center that teaches other educators about renewable energy, alternative energy technologies and energy conservation.
The college also received a $250,000 grant from the West Virginia Division of Energy this fall to create a solar energy technician education program and to offer professional development on solar energy to educators throughout the region.
In 2010, WVU-Parkersburg will offer certificate and associate degree programs in energy assessment management and solar energy technology. Thompson hopes to eventually create a four-year degree that incorporates entrepreneurship and facility management.
MentorLinks and Ebbage’s guidance that “no matter what type of energy you’re still looking at, making the best use of the energy first” were critical to WVU-Parkersburg obtaining the grants, Thompson said.
For CSCC faculty, it was the professional contacts fostered through their mentor, Ann Beheler, and conversations with other educators at the
ATE Principal Investigators Conference that propelled them over the past year.
The college received a $145,000 ATE grant to incorporate experiential learning into its information technology programs. It wants to create internships that give technology students “transformative experiences” akin to ones that liberal arts students have when they study abroad.
“Without MentorLinks, we wouldn’t be anywhere along the way we are,” said Cathy Balas, co-principal investigator for the ATE grant. As education director at
Avetec, a nonprofit research organization, Balas works with colleges and school systems near Springfield, Ohio, to improve science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs so local residents can attain the skills needed to work at Avetec and other high-tech employers near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. (Avetec’s main businesses are virtual testing of jet engines and data management using cluster computers.)
Adding STEM to the local culture has involved getting faculty at CSCC to understand it is possible to engage their students in more sophisticated science and technology. After talking with ATE grant recipients at last year’s conference, Balas said she and faculty members felt they too could take on the task of writing an NSF grant proposal.
“It gave us the confidence that ‘Hey, this isn’t impossible. Difficult, but not impossible,’” Balas said.
CSCC used Beheler’s process to do a business-needs analysis that has led to a new cybersecurity curriculum.
Other MentorLinks colleges and their projects include: