National Science Foundation Awards Grant
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded the Maricopa Community Colleges a three-year, $900,000 Advanced Technology Education grant in support of the District's High Tech Workforce Initiative (HTWI).
"This second award is a significant achievement on the part of our staff and faculty, and can be directly attributed to the results produced on the first High Tech Workforce Initiative grant," said Rick Hansen, Associate Director for the Center for Workforce Development and the Principal Investigator on both grants. "This new grant raises the bar for us in terms of NSF's expectations, since we are not only including K-12 faculty in our workforce development efforts, but also focusing on those emerging technologies which are critical to growing our local aerospace, biotech, electronics, semiconductor, and renewable energy sectors."
Over the course of the three year grant, the High Tech Workforce Initiative is expected to connect faculty members with organizations developing or adopting emerging technologies to develop and deliver timely curriculum that prepares the technology workforce. The grant also supports the deployment of comprehensive outreach efforts designed to attract youth and young adults to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) based education and careers.
"This award will give us the opportunity to connect students with STEM-focused career exploration activities and technology expos," said Lizette Acosta, Coordinator for the first grant's outreach activities. "We hope to introduce students to careers in technologies they may have never considered."
"The Greater Phoenix area has long been home to a broad and diverse technology base in aerospace, electronics, information technology and more recently a strong focus on renewable energy," added Sandra Watson, Chief Operating Officer of the Arizona Commerce Authority. "The adoption of unique skills for new and emerging technologies requires a foundation of technical competency. The Arizona Commerce Authority understands how critical this emphasis on education is to the State's future skilled workforce and is excited and supportive of this grant's goals."
