Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College (NHSC) Full-Circle Engineering Center of Excellence: Meeting the Engineering needs of the MHA Nation

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The TCU Enterprise Advancement Centers (TEA Centers) strand allows TCUP institutions to capitalize on their investments in STEM instruction and research. A goal of the Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP) is to increase the intellectual leadership of TCUP institutions so that they can address scientific or engineering needs or interests, specifically for their tribes or communities, or broadly for the Nation. This project aligns directly with that goal, and moreover will impact the economic strength of the Mandan Arikara Hidatsa (MHA) Nation by fostering new STEM employment opportunities and, through multiple pathways, providing the high-skilled workforce required for those opportunities. Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College (NHSC) will establish an academic and professional pathway to increase the number of engineers from and employed by the MHA Nation and local industry. The project builds upon the success pre-engineering collaborative that developed the pre-engineering program of study at NHSC, allowing students to transfer to North Dakota State University for upper division preparation. The Full Circle Engineering Center of Excellence will prepare and provide students with internships during their junior and senior years and then facilitate the tribe or industry’s hiring them as junior engineers, with the ability to rotate among several departments as they find their preferred niche. The junior engineers will work with professional engineers to learn non-classroom aspects of engineering practice, such as safety and communication. The Center will also conduct community outreach events to demonstrate the role that engineering plays in the quality of life of the community, and the role of the Center in providing engineers for that contribution.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.