The seven community colleges in the 2023-2025 MentorLinks cohort are all maximizing the American Association of Community College program’s connections to the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) community to enhance their technician education initiatives.
New York’s Onondaga Community College (OCC) team, however, has done something quite unusual. In the midst of applying for MentorLinks in 2023, faculty members were so impressed by the ATE program that they decided to submit a proposal to the National Science Foundation (NSF) right before their first MentorLinks meeting last autumn.
This article is one of two that examine some of the projects developed by community colleges in the National Science Foundation’s MentorLinks program. Today’s article focuses on colleges in the 2023-25 cohort. The next one will look at colleges in the 2024-26 cohort.
MentorLinks is a science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) program development initiative that the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) offers with NSF support. Ellen Hause, associate vice president of academic and student affairs at AACC, explained that MentorLinks colleges often apply for ATE grants to help with the technician education programs that they reinvigorate or start with MentorLinks’ help, but that grant proposal submission is not a requirement.
At the 2023 ATE Principal Investigators’ Conference that followed the MentorLinks meeting, OCC’s mentor, Sue G. Smith, introduced the college’s team members to leaders of the Micro Nano Technology Education Center and the Northeast Advanced Technological Education Center (NEATEC) and other nanotechnology educators in the ATE community. These meetings led to other helpful nanotech community interactions, including four Onondaga faculty members attending professional development programs at the New York Center for Research, Economic Advancement, Technology, Engineering, and Science (NY CREATES), where NEATEC now resides.
Another important learning experience was the team’s reverse site visit to the well-established mechatronics program at Ivy Tech Community College’s Lafayette Campus. Smith was a vice president of Ivy Tech’s award-winning School of Advanced Manufacturing, Engineering, and Applied Science before her retirement. Smith also arranged for Gino Duca, an associate professor at OCC, to tour the semiconductor research lab at Purdue University.
“Being in MentorLinks really expanded the connections that we have,” said Duca, who is director of the MentorLinks project for advancing semiconductor technology at OCC.
Smith’s introductions to people and programs are helping OCC enter the nanotech educational space, which the college had not been involved in prior to Micron Technology announcing its plan to build memory chip fabrication facilities in Clay, New York.
“There’s curriculum and resources out there without us having to build everything from the ground up,” Duca said, adding, “We see a lot of excitement from students wanting to enter into our program because we have the association as an educational partner with Micron.”
This summer, NSF awarded a $649,953 grant to OCC’s proposal for Pathways Leading to Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Across New York (PLASMA-NY). The ATE project will support the college’s efforts to build multiple pathways for people to gain the knowledge and skills certified to work in the semiconductor industry.
New lab and equipment
The team from South Arkansas College has also leveraged MentorLinks to obtain substantial external funding.
MentorLinks was the impetus for “serious” discussions with Standard Lithium Ltd., chemical companies, and other employers around El Dorado, Arkansas, which yielded insights about workforce needs. Recommendations from an array of industries influenced the team’s development of a new lab technician pathway within the college’s engineering and industrial engineering technology programs. Courses have been modified and added in chemistry and biology to the degree program that will launch in fall 2025.
“We’re extremely excited about this opportunity that MentorLinks has provided for us to have these conversations, to have time and ability to focus on what we need,” said Linda Bates, a professor of chemistry and microbiology who is leading the development of a new pathway for industrial lab technicians.
At the MentorLinks meeting in October Bates said, “We’ve had conversations with our subject-matter experts [from industry] that have been vital to our success. It just is phenomenal and nothing like this has been even attempted in our area. And as a result of this, conversations started going about where are we going to house this? Where are we going to have this laboratory facility that can literally teach the students what industry is requesting? And there became an opportunity – a space was available – and we had further discussions and we were able to apply for a grant.”
In mid-October, the college received $359,000 in federal funds distributed by the Delta Regional Authority to renovate a lab and purchase equipment.
Jens-Uwe Kuhn, SouthArk’s mentor and dean of educational programs at Santa Barbara City College, praised the team for involving many industry sectors. “They’ve done a really, really phenomenal job … It’s really exciting to see how they’ve been able to move this forward.”
Incorporating cell and gene therapy
A regional biotech company’s plan to add cell and gene therapy to the products it manufactures prompted Hudson Valley Community College (HVCC) in New York to seek MentorLinks mentoring.
Donna Barron, a professor of chemistry and the biotechnology program coordinator at HVCC, said it has been particularly helpful that, Margaret Bryans, the mentor AACC assigned to the Hudson Valley project, is a cell and gene therapy expert.
Bryans guided Barron and Julie Friot, an associate professor of biology at HVCC, in using the National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals skills standards to identify the knowledge, skills and abilities students need to work in this emerging field.
The team also identified gaps in the college’s curriculum and developed modules to fill them strategically, from introductory to advanced courses. Faculty from Hudson Valley also participated in train-the-trainer workshops in cell and gene therapy at Montgomery County Community College in Pennsylvania, where Bryans is a professor of biotechnology.
This academic year the team is refining the curriculum and testing the modules, which will be fully implemented in 2025-2026.
Barron predicts the modules will give Hudson Valley biotech graduates an advantage as they embark on biotech careers.
“I don’t know of any other four-years or two-year schools in the area that has cell and gene therapy being taught to first semester students, nevertheless, sophomores,” she said at the MentorLinks meeting in October.
Bryans praised Barron and Friot for their leadership and the college’s support for the project.
“The whole faculty has been on board to incorporate these learning objectives, and that’s just been great to see. So it’s really been a pleasure to work with this college and the whole division,” Bryans said.
Military ties
In the process of working on their MentorLinks plans, the team members from Leeward Community College (LCC) in Hawaii have had positive, circular experiences that continue to build on each other. The team’s focus is improving student retention and recruitment, revising curriculum, and obtaining professional development.
Mentor Greg Kepner’s meeting with the college’s top administrators during his MentorLinks site visit to Leeward influenced the chancellor’s decision to rename the integrated industrial technology program “mechatronics.”
Ron Umehira, dean of career and technical education, praised Kepner’s efforts. “His advocacy with our upper administration helped us get a lot of things done,” he said.
Kepner, a consultant who previously led an ATE photonics center at Indian Hills Community College in Iowa, describes the LCC team as very resourceful. “I was so happy to advocate for the program,” he said.
Other accomplishments explained by William Labby, associate professor of mechatronics technology and MentorLinks project lead, included the program’s development of a peer mentoring program and employment of two peer mentors to assist current students and help the program recruit high school students.
Kepner arranged Labby’s reverse site to give him multiple perspectives on program development. Labby toured advanced manufacturing labs at six Midwest community college campuses and talked with faculty at each one about curriculum and lab equipment.
“We are a teeny, tiny, tiny program relative to what’s going on in the Midwest in advanced manufacturing. But we now have a tie to that. We can’t just be a stand-alone program doing our own thing,” he said.
During this trip, Labby also participated in professional development offered by America’s Cutting Edge, which receives funding from the U.S. Department of Defense. This led to new connections with military operations in Hawaii that need help training personnel in advanced machining technologies. As a result of Labby’s recent interactions with military personnel, three active duty military members enrolled in Leeward mechatronics courses in fall 2024.
“In my estimation, it has been a wild success. I don’t think I could have done any of this had I not had this grant, and these site visits, and Greg [Kepner] to shepherd us along,” he said.
Cornel connections
Micron’s plan to construct a semiconductor manufacturing facility is also motivating the team from Tompkins Cortland Community College in New York. One of the activities of its MentorLinks project is publicizing nanotech careers to K-12 students through the college’s College NOW program.
The team sought and received an $800,000 grant from the State University of New York to purchase nanotechnology lab equipment, including a scanning electron microscope, said Carrie Coates Whitmore, director of continuing education and workforce development.
Tompkins Cortland also recently reached agreement with Cornell University for its students to access to a simulated nanotech environment to develop their nanotech skills. The team has also used multiple ATE professional development opportunities that included support to prepare grant proposals and to build industry partnerships.
“We reached out to many sources … It was a great learning opportunity,” said Sophia Georgiakaki, professor of mathematics. “Our MentorLinks project has helped us leverage what we already have,” she added.
Encouraging STEM students
To help increase persistence in its pre-engineering program, Cleveland State Community College in Tennessee added a two-week seminar course for first-year STEM students. It is a cross between orientation and a student success course.
Kimberly Harrington, an associate professor of math who is leading the college’s MentorLinks project, uses the seminar to introduce students to science concepts, careers and people on campus. She structured three sessions around the Community College Innovation Challenge. The team from the college qualified as finalists in 2023 for the competition that AACC offers with support from NSF.
So she had some of those team members talk to the students about their experience and assist with brainstorming a STEM-related problem.
The seminar also taps into the expertise of the college’s faculty and staff. Darrell Oakley, an associate professor of engineering and math and a MentorLinks team member, presented information about different types of engineering and encouraged the students to join the STEM Club. Someone from the marketing department gave students tips for making presentations. The dean talked to the students about the college’s quality enhancement plan.
Aside from the information conveyed, Harrington hopes that these interactions with eight college employees will help students feel more at ease and comfortable approaching faculty and staff with questions.
During the next year, Louis F. McIntyre, director of Grants Evaluation and Compliance at McIntyre Leadership Development Group and Cleveland State’s mentor, will help the team build its relationship with its feeder high schools to improve its student advising. He says it is essential in order for more students to be calculus-ready and physics-ready when they enroll at the college.
Opening opportunities
Sarah Maokosy, associate dean of educational services at Caolinga College, reported that the college’s MentorLinks activities have made students more aware of STEM career opportunities.
Enrollments are growing in the chemistry courses taught by Kenneth Henry, an instructor and MentorLinks project team member. And the small, rural California college recently recruited new adjunct chemistry and physics instructors.
During the next year, Maokosy and Henry hope to complete an ATE grant proposal with advice from their mentor Louise Petruzzella. She is a senior program manager at BioMADE.
Maokosy acknowledges that she and Henry have ambitious aspirations. Henry has already has distinguished himself nationally as the only community college instructor to coach two teams selected as finalists for the Community College Innovation Challenge in consecutive years, 2024 and 2023.
“Just because we are a small college doesn’t mean we can’t think big,” Maokosy said.
