ASHLAND, Ky. — ACTC has recently been accepted into Mentor-Connect, a program offered by the National Science Foundation.

Mentor-Connect is a mentoring program for two-year colleges new to the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education grant program, which, according to their website, “supports the education of technicians for the high-technology fields that drive our nation’s economy.”

The mentoring program will provide ACTC faculty/staff with the tools they need to write a grant proposal.

From January to October of 2022, this year’s cohort will have access to personalized mentoring, workshops, leadership development opportunities and online resources to develop a grant proposal for the ATE program.

The website indicates that graduates of Mentor-Connect currently boast a 70 percent proposal acceptance rate.

ACTC is seeking a grant to provide funding for an academic program to train students for careers in the maintenance and repair of electric vehicles.

The program would prepare students for the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence’s (ASE) Light Duty Hybrid/Electric Vehicle Specialist (L3) Certification.

Jesse Brown, electrical technology instructor, Shannon McCarty, diesel technology program coordinator and Ashley Skidmore, grant development specialist are representing ACTC in this year’s cohort.

McCarty believes participating in the program will not only be beneficial in the education of students in the Electrical, Diesel and Automotive programs, but will also serve the college in crafting future grant proposals.

“Primarily, I feel the skills learned and developed will assist in leading my students in the right direction to ensure their success in employment upon completing their education at Ashland Community and Technical College,” he said.

He added, “I believe it will also affect other programs in that I will be able to assist in the grant writing process upon learning the ins and outs of grant writing requirements. Funding is always an issue in keeping up with technology. Assistance would be extremely helpful in preparing students for industry. To train students in an area that is new and that is starving for trained technicians would be monumental in placing them in the workplace. Every part of their education that goes beyond the norm gives students the extra edge needed for placement and success.”

Brown says the grant will give students who graduate with this certificate an advantage when entering the workforce.

“I’m looking forward to participating in the mentorship program in order to learn how to write and prepare grants for not only our electrical program, but others as well. We hope to learn how to write grants to help us stay up to date in our ever-changing world,” Brown says.

“We believe that this grant would help us to better train our students to be ready for where the world is going. This grant would enable us to grow our program and graduate students who are ahead of the game with the skills to be confident in the field.”

For more information about Mentor-Connect, visit their website at https://www.mentor-connect.org/