Track 3: creating opportunities and networks for native engineering and community transformation

The National Science Foundation Division of Engineering Education and Centers awarded Montana State University $800,000 on July 1, 2026, under the Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) to establish the Creating Opportunities and Networks for Native Engineering and Community Transformation Mentoring Hub, a collaborative initiative designed to expand engineering participation among rural students through community-responsive mentoring and partnerships.

The project addresses persistent underrepresentation of rural students in engineering, particularly in geographically dispersed communities such as Montana where barriers including limited access to STEM pathways, lack of context-relevant curricula, and insufficient mentorship have contributed to disparities in engineering education and careers. Using an action research framework, the team will iteratively design, implement, and evaluate interconnected activities including immersive multi-day workshops and multi-week exchanges. The mentoring model will be guided by values of respect, relationship, representation, relevance, responsibility, and reciprocity, with investigation focused on how these principles improve recruitment, retention, and identity development among rural engineering students while leveraging community knowledge systems emphasizing relationships, holistic thinking, sustainability, and long-term stewardship.

Performance occurs in Bozeman, Montana, with a period of performance from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2031. Fort Peck Community College, a tribally controlled 1994 Land Grant Institution serving the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes, is a sub-recipient on the award and participates in the mentoring hub collaboration.

Abstract

This project will address a critical national need by expanding participation in engineering among rural students. These students remain significantly underrepresented in engineering despite comprising a growing segment of the population in many regions. In states such as montana, where many communities are geographically dispersed yet community rich, longstanding barriers including limited access to stem pathways, lack of context relevant curricula, and insufficient mentorship, have contributed to persistent disparities in engineering education and careers. At the same time, knowledge systems in these communities which emphasize relationships, holistic thinking, sustainability, and long-term stewardship, offer valuable perspectives for addressing complex challenges facing this nation. In alignment with the national science foundation?S mission to promote the progress of science and advance national welfare, the project will strengthen pathways into engineering, support student success, and cultivate a highly skilled workforce. By empowering engagement in engineering in unique community contexts, the project will contribute to economic opportunity and national competitiveness. This project will establish the creating opportunities and networks for native engineering and community transformation mentoring hub, a collaborative initiative designed to transform engineering education through community responsive mentoring and partnerships. The project will investigate how mentoring models guided by the values of respect, relationship, representation, relevance, responsibility, and reciprocity can improve recruitment, retention, and identity development among rural students in engineering. Using an action research framework, the team will iteratively design, implement, and evaluate a range of interconnected activities, including immersive multi-day workshops, multi-week exchange programs, virtual mentoring networks that integrate technical learning with community contexts and engagement. The project will engage multiple participant groups creating multi-directional mentoring networks that extend across institutions and communities. Mixed-methods evaluation, including surveys, interviews, and focus groups, will assess outcomes related to student success, mentoring effectiveness, and network development, while external evaluation will support continuous improvement. Expected outcomes include increased participation and persistence of students in engineering, strengthened educational pathways from K-12 to and through higher education, development of transferable mentoring frameworks, and the creation of a scalable, international hub for rural engineering education. The project will generate new knowledge on community responsive mentoring with positive and lasting impacts extending to institutions, communities, and the engineering profession. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.- subawards are planned for this award.