Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

PCC earns $600,000 grant to improve diversity

Photos and story by James Hill

The Portland Community College Grants Office has announced that the college is the recipient of a four-year, $596,214 grant from the National Science Foundation’s Scholarships-Science, Technology, Engineering and Math program to increase diversity in the technology and engineering fields.

This is one part of $1.3 million in funding the college received from the NSF this spring. PCC also earned a three-year, $698,095 National Science Foundation grant for PCC’s Sustainability Training for Technical Educators program. The funds will infuse sustainability content, practices, tools and techniques into PCC programs that impact construction and the building process.

The S-STEM grant targets increasing participation of underrepresented students, specifically women, minorities and people in financial need, in technology engineering programs at PCC. This is the second grant for the Increasing Access and Diversity and Technology Programs project. The first was a four-year, $400,000 grant for the computer science, engineering and math programs that has just expired. It provided scholarships to full-time, degree-seeking students who showed the greatest financial need and were underrepresented in the targeted fields.

This grant met and exceeded its goals. Results of the first grant included an increase of 50 percent of under-represented students and 85 percent of the number of full-time students. It also grew the number of high school students entering directly into college by 33 percent and increased the total number of students within the programs who completed their degree within two years by 88 percent.

The new grant involves the Civil and Mechanical Engineering Technology, Electronic Engineering Technology and Machine Manufacturing Technology programs at the Sylvania Campus (12000 S.W. 49th Ave.) and the Microelectronics Technology program at the Rock Creek Campus (17705 N.W. Springville Road). The goal of the grant is to increase under-represented groups by 50 percent, increase the number of female students by 25 percent, grow the amount of high school students by 20 percent, and have 80 percent of all scholars complete their program within two years.

“The goal of these grants is to address the need for a more diverse engineering workforce and help feed the big demand for engineers in all fields,” said Todd Sanders, mechanical engineering instructor and project manager for the grant. “There are numerous students with financial need that will benefit from this grant, especially minority students, single parents, injured workers, displaced workers, and people who have hit the employment ceiling without an education.”

To help improve the path to these programs, Sanders said that they have teamed up with the college’s PAVTEC program, which offers PCC credit courses through cooperating high schools. If high school students complete the courses, they are eligible for entry into the programs and will have their two years of school at PCC paid for, including tuition and books. This is a value of about $8,250. There is also an option in which, if the students transfer to Oregon Institute of Technology, they have their third year paid for as well.

Emily Hall of Sellwood is finishing her degree in the Civil and Mechanical Engineering Technology program and credits the scholarship from this project for turning her life around. Without the grant funding and the encouragement of faculty and staff, she might not be where she is today – running a materials testing lab in Lake Oswego called Shannon & Wilson Inc. She entered PCC as a 30-year-old single mother and her confidence was at an “all time low.”

She had had a brush with the law and was homeless for a stretch before she realized she had to finish her education. Coming from a family of seven, she was the first to attend college. When she graduates June 13, she will have been selected to the Honor’s List five consecutive quarters.

“I needed to go to school for my son,” Hall said. “The Civil and Mechanical Engineering Technology program was a fast track to a career. There is a gigantic need for people in this field. In my class of 20, there were less than eight women.”

The Utah native said her constant dropping out of college (she dropped out four times) was a result of, “one tragedy or drama after another,” Hall said. “It always seemed to make it difficult for me to stay in school, but this was something that helped me focus. The scholarship was the key. Without it I don’t know how well I would have done.

“My son has everything he needs now and he’s proud of me,” she added. “My parents have gone from being worried to being really proud of me, too.”

For information about this grant, contact Todd Sanders, at tsanders@pcc.edu or (503) 977-4654.