The Mentor-Connect initiative is led by some of the National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education (NSF ATE) program’s most experienced and successful Principal Investigators (PIs) and mentors.

Our team has implemented a mentoring system that is effectively harnessing the collegial peer-sharing culture that exists within ATE by leveraging and expanding the use of available ATE and NSF resources, including the talents of successful PIs and former NSF Program Officers, to engage and support the involvement of new, diverse technician educators and develop their leadership skills while facilitating knowledge transfer from the more to the less experienced.

The Mentor-Connect leadership team is increasing the capability of faculty to prepare competitive NSF ATE grant proposals and the capacity of the nation’s two-year colleges to acquire NSF funding to advance technician education and broadening the impact of the NSF ATE Program demographically and geographically. Mentor-Connect prepares new Mentors for this work through a Mentor Fellows Internship program and supports first-time Principal Investigators (PIs) and their grant implementation teams with a first-year, facilitated PI 101 program.