San Diego Miramar College has received a $270,800 Advanced Technological Education (ATE) grant from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. government’s independent science agency.
The three-year grant will fund the college’s Zero Emission Vehicle Initiative to support future automotive technicians. It will also prompt faculty members at the college to provide ideas to improve technician education.
“I’m thrilled that our Automotive Program is so highly thought of within the industry, both regionally and nationally, that the National Science Foundation would entrust us with this funding,” said Dr. Wesley Lundburg, president of San Diego Miramar College. “It is our mission to prepare students for the future and nothing addresses future needs in the automotive industry than zero-emission vehicles. With California moving toward requiring these types of vehicles by 2035, we are now moving toward being a trusted educator in the field.”
The Zero Emission Vehicle Initiative, according to Principal Investigator Martin Kennedy and Co-Principal Investigator Ryan Monroy, professor of Automotive Technology at San Diego Miramar College, will make education on zero-emission vehicles a reality for technicians and independent repair shops in the region. Previously, many of these shops, along with their technicians from underserved communities, had no access to this training. As principal investigator, Kennedy will lead the new initiative with Professor Monroy along with the support of the dean of the School of Business, Technical Careers, and Workforce Initiatives, Claudia Estrada-Howell.
Miramar College will be collaborating with the newly formed ZEV advisory committee, which includes over 25 organizations, Mobilize Summit (400 faculty, fleets, and industry), and the San Diego Automotive Teachers Community of Practice.
Professors Kennedy and Monroy, along with Special Projects Manager Jonathan Kropp, began preparing the grant proposal in 2020 with mentoring and technical support from Mentor-Connect, which provides mentoring and technical resources to help two-year college faculty write competitive grant proposals. Mentor-Connect is an ATE project led by Florence-Darlington Technical College in partnership with the American Association of Community Colleges.
Mentor-Connect was instrumental in San Diego Miramar College obtaining this grant. They provided two conferences along with endless support to ensure our grant proposal was successful.
The ATE program focuses on the education of technicians who work in high-tech fields that drive the nation’s economy. Because two-year community and technical colleges are the leading sources of technician education in the United States, faculty from these higher education institutions have had leadership roles in most ATE projects since the program began in 1993.
For more info, email Claudia Estrada-Howell, dean of the School of Business Technical Careers & Workforce Initiatives at cestrada@sdccd.edu or Martin Kennedy, auto program chair at mkennedy@sdccd.edu.
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