NORFOLK, Neb. – In late 2023, the Mentor Connect program announced Brandon Keller, Northeast Community College ag instructor, as one of four participants in the Mentor Fellowship Internships for Cohort 12 representing the 2023-2024 funding cycle.
The Mentor Connect project is funded by the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education program under the title of “A Leadership Development & Outreach Initiative for ATE.”
The Mentor Connect program is a peer mentoring program that works to facilitate knowledge transfer from the more experienced to the less experienced in the ATE (Advanced Technical Education) field. The program was originally funded in September 2012 and has since reached 261 grant teams representing 43 states and two U.S. territories to date.
Participating grant teams are paired with mentors and mentor fellows with significant experience in the NSF ATE program to coach them through the grant writing process, the mentoring process includes a winter workshop in New Orleans, La., a summer workshop held in conjunction with the annual HI-TEC conference, and multiple online coaching sessions throughout the cycle.
To be selected as a mentor fellow, applicants had to demonstrate their success in the ATE program across a minimum of two successfully funded ATE projects. The Mentor Fellow program pairs participants in the fellow internship program with a successful Mentor-Connect Mentor to shadow and participate in the coaching process with their assigned colleges.
Fellows kick off their experience with two extensive leadership development workshops prior to engaging with grant teams for the mentoring program. These workshops include leadership skills, how to coach and mentor, and effective communication in a remote environment. Fellows then attend the Winter Workshop in New Orleans at the end of January, where they first meet with their teams and begin their hands-on internship experience, which includes a crash course in NSF grant writing and expectations.
Once the Winter Workshop is adjourned, the teams spend the coming months meeting via video conferencing to coach teams through the grant writing process, read and provide feedback on grant proposals, and attend multiple webinars provided by the Mentor-Connect program providing resources for hopeful grantees.
The teams reunite at the HI-TEC conference, held in Kansas City, Mo., this year, for a day-long coaching session prior to final online coaching sessions ahead of the October submission deadline.
Keller said he is excited to share his knowledge and experience in the ATE program over the past seven years to help better develop the next generation ATE grantees. Keller’s experience in the ATE program started in 2018 when he was fortunate to take over at the principal investigator on Northeast Community College’s fist ATE grant on Precision Agriculture.
Upon the conclusion of that project Keller joined forces with Tee Bush at Northeast to co-author and co-lead the college’s second ATE-funded project on precision agriculture in the Urban Environment. Keller has become a well-known name in the ATE community having served multiple cycles as a peer-reviewed for the program, and having over eight conference presentations at the annual NSF ATE Principal Investigator’s conference in Washington, D.C.
On campus, Keller serves as mentor for other grant Principal Investigators and the Grants and Development Office in National Science Foundation related endeavors.
“We are pleased that Brandon has been chosen as a participant in the Mentor Fellowship Internships,” said Charlene Widener, vice president of Educational Services. “The Mentor Connect program assists colleges across the country in development of successful NSF grant proposals. The program will be a valuable professional development opportunity for Brandon and his expertise will benefit not only Northeast but other colleges in Nebraska.”
The ATE program focuses on education of technicians who work in high-tech fields that drive the nation’s economy. Because two-year community and technical colleges are the leading source of technician education in the United States, faculty from these high education institutions have had leadership roles in most ATE projects since the program began in 1993.
The next Mentor-Connect cohort application deadline will be in November 2024. To learn more about the Mentor-Connect program please visit www.mentor-connect.org.
Keller Honored
Brandon Keller, Northeast Community College ag instructor, has been chosen as a participant in the Mentor Fellowship Internships, one of four who were recently selected. (Northeast Community College)
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