Florence-Darlington Technical College’s Mentor-Connect project recognized
Florence-Darlington Technical College’s ATE-funded Mentor-Connect project collaborated with Arizona State University Center for Broadening STEM Education and Westchester Community College, N.Y., to win the 2022 High Impact Technology Exchange Conference (HI-TEC) Innovative Program of the Year Award.
HI-TEC is a national conference supported by the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education program. The conference focuses on advanced technological education, and it provides an opportunity for institutions like FDTC to expand its scientific knowledge on current workforce needs in the high-tech sectors.
The Innovative Program Award is designed to recognize a team of advanced technology education professionals that has designed and implemented a significant innovation, which has led to a positive impact on student enrollment, retention, and/or advanced technological education.
Throughout the research collaboration, FDTC serves as part of the leadership team, and the college also plays a role in project planning and disseminating project research findings and resource information. The NSF ATE project, Professional Development for Culturally Responsive Technical Education, is being implemented to address the need for culturally responsive technician education across higher education.
Rick Roberts, Managing Director of the SCATE Center at FDTC and Co-Principal Investigator for the HSI-ATE Hub 2 project and Mentor-Connect, said, “Our role in the project is helping to build and make available culturally responsive instruction that has been shown to increase student success for Latinx students in higher education generally and STEM education in particular.”
The HSI ATE Hub 2 faculty development project guides educators in translating and applying theory and research on culturally responsive education to implement effective practices that are guided by knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes to improve the diversity of the STEM technical workforce. The project touches on cultural responsiveness and validates, affirms and acknowledges students’ diverse heritages that impact learning and teaching.
HI-TEC will be held in Salt Lake City, Utah, from July 25-28.