Collaborative Research (PEEC: 2+2+2+Infinity:Pipeline for Tribal Pre-Engineering to Society

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This collaboration among TCUP colleges Cankdeska Cikana Community College Community College, CCCC, Ft. Berthold Community College, FBCC, Turtle Mountain Community College , TMCC, and Sitting Bull College, SBC, and North Dakota State University, NDSU, is the culmination of more than 11 years of active engagement in STEM education on the reservation, including a year-long academic sabbatical at TMCC by an engineering professor. It supports a tribal college vision of expanded life-choices for reservation residents that could provide more technical competency for tribal decision-making, infrastructure improvement and the opportunity for personal and tribal advancement without loss of cultural heritage. For NDSU the benefits would include expanded participation of culturally diverse students, shared fulfillment of the 1862/1994 land grant mission, improved faculty-student communication and interaction and expansion of the talent pool entering STEM professions. The heart of the proposal is the interaction of tribal high school, tribal college, mainstream University and engineering profession stakeholders to facilitate the recruitment, education and support of tribal students to acquire and hone the skills that will allow them to enter the engineering profession or contribute in some other fashion to their communities and the nation. The proposal will accomplish this vision by impacting students through interactions with faculty/ staff, curriculum and supporting functions/agencies. All of this will be accomplished in a culturally supportive fashion.