In October of 2016, Norco College received a five-year federal Hispanic-Serving Institution Title III grant. With the $6 million grant the College developed a guaranteed transfer pathway with UC Riverside's Bourns College of Engineering and provided some out of this world experiences.
For instance, students competed in a rocket project, building a 14-foot rocket that reached 10,000 feet. Although cancelled due to COVID-19, the group of students were accepted to the Spaceport America Cup. Another group of students competed in the NASA SUITS competition, developing, and assembling a virtual training environment for NASA astronauts. The students presented their project to NASA officials alongside teams from Harvard, Texas A&M and other well-known and respected universities.
The grant also provided for an Engineering Challenge where students built solar cell phone charging stations. They are still in use today. Students also designed and produced 3D printed maps of the College for vision impaired students and created a service-learning collaboration with Loma Linda University Orthotics and Prosthetics. The university graduate students and Norco College students worked together to design, engineer, and produce a prosthetic arm each year for the last five years.
Because of the grant the STEM Center was able to provide counseling interventions, expansion of the Learning Resource Center and STEM tutoring as well as a STEM guest speaker series where champions in the STEM field shared their educational and professional journey as well as the latest research. Internships and research opportunities were another component that furthered the learning experience for students at the College.
Students have been able to intern at NAVSEA, NASA California Space Grant Consortium, Southern California Edison, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory while participating in such elite programs as the Naval Research Enterprise, NASA L'Space, NASA JPL's Maximizing Student Potential in STEM, NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars Program, UC Riverside's DNA Subway Sequence to Success Program, and UCLA's MEDPEP.
Jason Parks, Ed.D., dean of Instruction for the School of STEM and School of Business & Management said, “even upon transferring to four-year universities, the graduates return to mentor and aid students at Norco College so they too could gain valuable experiences and knowledge."
Ryan Melendez, a former STEM scholar and Cal Poly Pomona electrical engineering graduate, is an electrical engineer at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. And then there is Brenda Lopez, a former undocumented, first-generation, and low-income student, who is in the Ph.D. mechanical engineering program at UC Riverside. Or, Ria Shiv, a graduate of the University of California who currently works as a software engineer at Google. Estefani Ontiveros, a first-generation, and Engineering Pathways STEM alumni, was selected to participate in the FIELDS Internship through University of California, Riverside at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in Pasadena. She graduated with distinction and earned five associate degrees. Brendan Santos is an Engineering Pathways STEM alumni, who is attending the University of California, Riverside. He was selected to participate in the UC Riverside Bourns College of Engineering TUNE Summer Bridge to Research paid internship program — one of four students to be selected. The list of students who benefited from the Title III grant and discovered their lifelong passion is impressive and growing.
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