Northern Oklahoma College Tonkawa held a Pre-Engineering Workshop Friday, March 4 at the Crowder Science Hall at NOC.
Twenty-eight NOC students from the Tonkawa, Stillwater and Enid campuses participated in the workshop.
Cody Mann, NOC’s Bell Program contact, presented materials regarding the Bell program and the economics of figuring out what is needed for the costs to continue the upper division education. Payton Malcolm, a former PLC student and recently graduated from Minnesota State University, and Veronica Ramirez, a current Bell Student were the primary presenters for the resume and professionalism portion of the program. Corbin Crowder and Jayden Sharp, current Bell Students who are completing Co-Op internships in the area, also stopped in briefly during the day.
Dr. Frankie Wood-Black stated “this workshop was designed to help our students learn what is needed to succeed throughout their educational careers to allow them to be productive in the future. The idea behind the workshop was to hear from others what helped them prepare for the workforce, provide information about senior level courses, and what they can be doing right now to prepare and gain experience in these critical career fields. This workshop helped the students to plan for the future and to experience what types of opportunities may be available to them.”
The Bell Program is an ABET accredited upper division engineering transfer program for students coming from a community college or equivalent education experience at a university seeking a Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree. This program model allows students to graduate with 2.5 years of engineering experience. The first half-year is called the Bell Academy which is an intensive growth phase where students learn to work in industry by completing design projects, taking technical courses, and developing professional skills. The following two years are spent taking courses remotely while having the opportunity to work as engineers full time in industry for up to 24 months.
A planned rocket launch had to be scrapped due to high winds and the potential fire danger, but an alternate date is being planned. Each student at the Friday NOC workshop received a photo for their resume’s and/or Linked In profiles. The program was partially funded by a NOC Presidential Partner grant.