09.09.16

Hoeven Announces More Than $2.4 Million in NSF Grants for NDSU-Tribal College Engineering Partnership Program

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 a total of $2,475,000 to support continued collaboration between North Dakota State University (NDSU) and four tribal colleges in the state: Cankdeska Cikana Community College, Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College, Sitting Bull College and Turtle Mountain Community College. Each school received $495,000.

The grants will help fund the Pre-Engineering Education Collaborative (PEEC) program which allows students to begin earning their engineering degrees at the tribal colleges before transferring to NDSU to finish their Bachelor’s degree. Today’s funding marks the second phase of the program, which began in 2010.

“NDSU is a world-class university providing exceptional education in engineering,” Hoeven said. “Today’s NSF grants will continue to help tribal students to better access NDSU’s engineering programs and improve student learning under the program through distance education and support for faculty at the tribal colleges. That means more students will be able to complete their degrees and find good jobs.”

The funding comes as part of NSF’s Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP), an effort to increase Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) instruction and research at tribal institutions. As part of his work to advocate for and expand STEM education opportunities at schools and higher learning institutions, Hoeven helped secure support for TCUP and similar programs in the Senate’s Fiscal Year 2017 appropriations bills. Further, the Every Student Succeeds Act that Congress passed last year included legislation based on a measure Hoeven had introduced with Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) to improve students’ access to STEM education.

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