09.07.16

Hoeven Announces $500,000 Grant to Create New STEM Degree, Promote STEM Education at Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College

WASHINGTON – Senator John Hoeven, who serves on the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, today announced that the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Division of Human Resource Development has awarded $500,000 to the Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College (NHSC) in New Town. The grant is part of NSF’s Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP) and will support the college’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) instruction and research capabilities, as well as STEM promotion efforts in the community.

“This grant from NSF will help STEM instructors at Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College improve their classrooms and will support research and development efforts,” Hoeven said. “This grant will also help recruit more STEM students from the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nations to help grow the number of STEM workers in the community where there is a growing number of energy related jobs. Throughout our state and our country, we need continue working to support STEM education and research because it creates jobs and strengthens and grows our economy.”

Today’s grant will help NHSC develop a new Associate of Science degree in Sustainable Energy Technologies. The grant will also help the college recruit and retain STEM students, expand undergraduate energy research opportunities and raise the community’s awareness of STEM opportunities. This serves as part of a larger effort to expand the STEM-educated workforce in the energy field on the Fort Berthold Reservation and in North Dakota.

Hoeven has worked to expand STEM education opportunities. Last year, Congress passed the Every Student Succeeds Act which included legislation based on a measure Hoeven had introduced with Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) to improve students’ access to STEM education. Also, as a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Hoeven helped secure funding in the Senate’s Fiscal Year 2017 appropriations bills for programs to enhance STEM education, including TCUP.

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