Monthly Archives: April 2021

CLRI, Community Partnerships, STEM Careers

NOVA Students Recognized for CLRI Success

The Career & Leadership Readiness Institute (CLRI) at Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) celebrated the completion of its inaugural year with a virtual celebration for 35 NOVA students and alumni who received certificates of completion and an address from NOVA President, Dr. Anne Kress!

Requirements to obtain the certificate included completing a variety of workshops including topics such as Resume Preparation, Interviewing, Networking, Diversity & Equity Inclusion in the workplace, communication and conflict resolution and other sessions highlighting how to professionally stand out from the crowd. Students delivered a final project to complete their CLRI certification.

Over 500 individuals attended activities throughout the semester and late last-year.  Orientation sessions were offered from November-January and 21 workshops, panels and information sessions led by 29 various community partners were offered during 8 weeks of the Spring 2021 semester.   Captioning services were provided for every session and as well as an opportunity for NOVA ASL interpreting students to practice their interpreting skills.

CLRI’s first goal is to provide opportunities for students to engage in career and leadership readiness training and networking activities with the NOVA community and employers to increase career connections.  The second goal is to prepare NOVA students with the knowledge, skills, and awareness to navigate a diverse workplace. It is an optional program for NOVA students and does not have any academic credits or grades tied to it.

Participants at the Virtual Recognition Celebration received a NOVA Polo, an embossed padfolio, and an engraved NOVA pen along with their certificate of completion. Community partners received a special NOVA engraved pen.

The CLRI is a 2020-21 InNOVAtion Grant sponsored by the NOVA Foundation. This grant sponsored initiative was submitted and implemented by Brittany Hollis, IET Career Coach and Tiffanie Rosier, SySTEMic STEM Education Coordinator.

A couple of responses from students who completed the course:

“I appreciate very much all the enthusiasm and dedication you have transmitted to us through your excellent work. The knowledge and skills acquired are and will be very valuable for our professional development. Thank you for your time and continuous monitoring so that we can complete each required step. I would absolutely recommend you for future activities!”
Kelly S.

“Thank you to all the Employers/Partners that came to the CLRI workshops. You were wonderful, helpful, kind and insightful. You were an amazing group of men and women who work in the fields of interest and were able to answer our questions and give us amazing feedback and connections for the future.”
Marijane D.

 

CTE Fellowships, Employee Spotlight

Congrats to our ACTE PLSP Fellows!

The Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) has selected two members of our team, Tiffanie Rosier and Aleksander Marthinussen for the distinct honor of being named as 2021 Fellows for the Post-Secondary Leadership Success Program (PLSP). Only 20 Fellows were selected NATIONWIDE, so to have two from the same program at the same college is quite an achievement!
The vision for the PLSP-ECMC Foundation Fellowship is to help develop the leadership skills of current and emerging postsecondary Career and Technical Education (CTE) professionals with an emphasis on addressing the needs of under-served populations.
The Fellows will be exposed to such topics as the future of CTE; building stronger alliances with secondary CTE and dual credit; building strong business-education partnerships and creating high quality work-based learning opportunities for students as well as interaction with leaders from governmental education agencies across the US.
Tiffanie Rosier:
Tiffanie serves as a STEM Education Coordinator for NOVA SySTEMic. Her role is to facilitate and coordinate STEM integration and Career Exploration activities at all grade levels from K-12 to Community College in various in person and now virtual formats. Tiffanie also works to develop relationships with higher education and business partners to coordinate activities for student’s academic, career and professional development. Tiffanie coordinates regularly scheduled STEM/CTE Workshops for students and potential students on topics related to career and professional development activities, along with information about academic programs at NOVA.
Aleksander Marthinussen:
Aleksander holds a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from Narvik University College in Norway, where he was born and raised. Before relocating to the U.S. in 2008, he worked for the European Space Agency, Norwegian Space Center and Andoya Space with student outreach and teacher professional development in STEM. Aleksander is the Program Manager for NOVA SySTEMic, the College’s STEM Outreach Program. He provides leadership and coordination of STEM activities in the community such as STEM summer camps, STEM expos, STEM workshops and other outreach activities.
Check out all the 2021 Fellows who are changing the face of CTE
STEM Careers, STEM Education, STEM Grants

Grant Award for NOVA Engineering Tech/DCO

NSF Funds DCO Tech: Expanding Regional Capacity for Engineering Technology and Data Center Operations Education.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently awarded NOVA a three-year grant, set to begin in July 2021, to advance NOVA’s educational pathways to engineering technology careers.

Principle Investigator (PI) Josh Labrie, Director of NOVA SySTEMic, the college’s STEM outreach program, is excited to build community awareness for NOVA’s engineering technology programs: “This is an excellent moment to raise awareness at the secondary level for these high-paying and in-demand career opportunities in the region by reaching students, educators and career counselors through the grant.”

Co-PI’s Amir Mehmood and TJ Ciccone, NOVA IET faculty members for the engineering technology and data center operations (DCO) specialization, will lead several pieces of the project including a 2-week summer bridge program and additional data center industry engagement. Ciccone, who is Vice-President of Operations at STACK Infrastructure alongside his NOVA IET Faculty role, said “I couldn’t be prouder to participate in this program and provide students the access they need to build the lives they want. I believe in the power of education to transform lives, and this grant is just one of the many initiatives to support that mission.”

Virginia has the largest data center market in the United States – almost as much as the second-through-fifth largest markets combined. Due to favorable regulations adopted by the Virginia legislature, data center capacity is forecast to continue growing. As advanced computing techniques, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, increasingly require access to cloud-based infrastructure, the need for data center technicians, engineers, and technicians will grow quickly alongside data center capacity.

Correspondingly, Micron Technology has announced a $3 billion expansion in northern Virginia to address the need for trained technicians and engineers.

DCO Tech: Expanding Regional Capacity for Engineering Technology and Data Center Operations Education is primarily focused on studying and expanding the educational pathway of students preparing for careers in engineering technology. The grant will expand NOVA’s newly revised engineering technology programs through improved recruitment, employment training, and by fostering a community of practice between industry, secondary educators, and NOVA faculty. It will also expand the workforce pipeline for engineering technology in the northern Virginia region and partner with industry to ensure that students are prepared for careers in the data center industry.

DCO Tech will increase the regional supply of engineering technology technicians through the following components: (1) a two week summer bridge program  focused on career exploration and hands-on learning; (2) an internship preparatory programdesigned to support students in developing career readiness; (3) an externship for high school educators and industry professionals to develop first-hand knowledge of regional career pathways for engineering technology; and, (4) a veterans outreach program to inform military-connected students of NOVA’s engineering technology programs.

If interested in learning more about NOVA’s engineering technology or data center programs go to www.nvcc.edu/iet or contact IET@nvcc.edu