By Greta Lieske
IV Leader Editor
Illinois Valley Community College has received a grant of
$520,000, from the National Science Foundation to be spread over a three-year
timeline to recruit students into engineering-related careers by sparking
interest through education.
Dorene Perez, program director of computer aided design and
computer aided engineering, is the head of the grant program and hopes that the
program will educate individuals about the complexities and misconceptions about
engineering. “NSF is basically there to give money to people to research
anything that has to do with science,” explained Perez. “And sometimes you don’t
think engineering has anything to do with science, but actually engineering is
built on science. If science discovers new things, then the engineer will take
those discoveries and make something. That’s why we’re part of the NSF.”
Perez is confident that education about engineering will
catch the interest of many because students simply think they cannot have a job
in the engineering field because they think it may be out of their league.
“Basically everything is touched by an engineer,” continued Perez. “Without an
engineer, we really couldn’t live. [Students] hear engineering, CAD (computer
aided design) engineering or electrical engineering technology; they get scared,
thinking ‘Wow, I’m not smart enough to be an engineer.’ So, we’re trying to
educate people about that. And that’s the primary purpose of our grant.”
Perez said a lot of emphasis will be on engineering
technology, which is different than just engineering. “The difference between an
engineer and an engineering technologist is the amount of time they would spend
in school or depths of studies they would cover. The biggest difference is
engineers are the theory people. They come up with the idea and theories, but
the technologists are people that actually have the hands-on type of things.”
According to Perez, the grant programs are in the organizing
stage at the moment, but could be starting “as early as October.” The programs
will consist of camps and clubs for young people, recruitment at high schools
and middle school, recruitment for women and non-traditional students and
different project-based activities.
“The first part of it will be the after school clubs. We’re
also going to offer in the spring a ‘Taste of Engineering’ course. And that
course is designed to have maybe one week where you will be in CAD, one week
will be in electronics, one week will be in manufacturing and another week maybe
in computer networking. So, you can actually see all the different
technologies,” said Perez. She hopes that this type of class will generate
interest for those who are not exactly sure what they want to do in engineering,
or may not understand all that engineering includes.
One of the co-directors of the program, Jim Gibson, program
director of electronics, said that individuals from industry may play a large
role in young adult recruitment.
“At some of our advisory meetings,” explained Gibson, “ we’ve
got some good ideas; talking about industry going into high schools for
recruiting, like instead of us, or with us or for us. Things might carry a
little more weight if someone from industry says, ‘Hey, IVCC is where they went
and that’s where I want to get my employees from.’ I think it will make a
difference when the high school students hear it.”
According to Gibson, women and non-traditional adult students
will be a focus of recruitment, but recruiting younger adults is something
entirely new, but just as important because many high school and junior high
students need a plan for their future.
“Older students will be focused on, but normally we haven’t
been going down to junior high, but we’re finding out a lot of students are
losing interest; they’re not picking what they want to do yet, but they’re
losing interest in things. And I don’t think people really realize what a
technical skill is; it’s huge,” said Gibson.
Recruitment of women and older adults looking for a career
change will play an integral role in the program. “We want to make sure women
understand these are not ‘male’ jobs,” said Perez, “also that there are jobs
available in this area. We are going to have special events for women, like
engineering camps, where they get some hands-on experience where they get to
design and build things.”
One particular project that Perez and Gibson are excited
about is a partnership with Purdue University and the e-CREATE program where
students will learn about and build Fender guitars. A professor from Purdue
University will come to IVCC to show students the engineering behind the Fender
guitar, said Perez.
“I actually got to tour the Fender factory in California; Jim
and I both did,” added Perez. “And we are going to do some workshops in camps
where we’re going to show them the engineering behind the guitar.”
Students will also have a chance to go to Purdue, said
Gibson. “We’re taking students each summer to go out to Purdue to take a look
and actually build guitars out there. I think it’s going to be awesome. It
focuses everything. Like CAD focuses on the guitar; Electronics focuses on the
guitar. The manufacturing focuses on the guitar.
“When you get all the different classes in manufacturing
together all working on the same project,” continued Gibson, “they should see
how everything fits together. The guitar is a good hook. We could have used
anything; made anything. But, the guitar is something that they would not
traditionally be making, so it generates more interest.”
The program also includes Sue Caley-Opsal, anatomy and
physiology professor, and Rose Marie Lynch, communications professor.
NSF, an independent federal agency, supports research and
education in science and engineering. The NSF-funded Advanced Technical
Education program is dedicated to improving the skills of technicians by
supporting two-year colleges in developing model workforce development
initiatives.