Want to develop an NSF ATE Proposal?

Apply for the Successful Mentor Up Mentoring Program!

Special Feature: Pre-mentoring help. Mentor Up is offering for the second time Pre-Mentor Up. Each accepted college can receive up to ten hours of mentoring help from an experienced mentor to brainstorm possible proposal ideas and develop them into a one-page proposal that can be submitted for the full Mentor Up program. 

Pre-mentoring will take place from January 1, 2025-March 14, 2025 and two faculty will be eligible to receive $250 stipends upon submittal of their application to the full Mentor Up program. Pre-Mentor Up participants can apply to Mentor Up in March one month ahead of the regular April application deadline. Apply at atementorup.org.

Mentor Up Full Mentoring Program Focus: This mentoring program includes a three-day workshop for participants to learn about the NSF Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program and how to most effectively apply for grant funding. Faculty must propose a specific project to improve an ATE-eligible technical program in a one-page proposal. One-page proposals will be reviewed until April 1 and proposals will be either accepted or sent back for corrections and the website will remain open until the workshop and a waiting list are full. Workshop activities will include presentations; planning and writing sessions with mentors who have had extensive experience with ATE and NSF; and networking with colleagues from similar institutions around the country. Two faculty from each college will receive stipend support.

 When: June 4-6, 2025 virtual workshop plus individual mentoring by an experienced mentor and summer webinar series.

Location: Virtual 

Eligibility:  The team should be led by a full-time STEM discipline faculty involved in technician education programs from a two-year college. Two faculty per college are eligible for stipends and colleges may also include a grant writer and other team members for the workshop and webinar series. Teams of two or more are strongly encouraged.

Stipends and Support: Each participant will be eligible for a $500 stipend upon the completion of the workshop. An additional stipend of $250 to each of two faculty will be available upon submission of an ATE proposal in the October 2025 competition.

Ongoing Support: The mentor assigned to each college team will continue throughout the summer to support each college’s efforts to write a complete proposal. This will include creating pre- and post-workshop milestones, webinars, suggesting resources, and providing feedback both for proposal writing and in the award process.

To register for the workshop, visit the Mentor Up website at: www.atementorup.org or if you have any questions about activities, please contact Dr. Kathleen Alfano at kalfano37@gmail.com (co-PI of CREATE and Mentor Up).                                       

NSF ATE Grant # 2032835

2025 FCPN Symposium Focused on Navigating Career Pathways supporting Florida's Talent Pipeline

The 2025 Florida Career Pathways Network Conference (FCPN) Symposium was held January 8-10 in Jensen Beach.  FCPN is an effective venue for providing career and technical educators, employers and workforce development partners across Florida with resources and best practices to foster professional leadership and partnership. This year’s symposium included a pre-conference workshop to learn about Indian River State College Workforce Education Programs.  The symposium itself offered 47 sessions as well as an educational vendor showcase. More than 200 career and technical education (CTE) attendees had the
opportunity to learn about the latest best practices and strategies for developing a talent pipeline.

FLATE’s interactive presentation focused on “Making and Keeping Strong Industry Partners.” The presentation shared best practices, valuable resources and facilitated discussion on how to find and keep industry partners engaged.

The Florida Career Pathways Network is a membership organization for educators, employer, and workforce development partners involved in the advancement of Career Pathways, Career & Technical Education, and other related education reform initiatives. FCPN assists its members in the planning, implementing, evaluating, and improving of secondary, post-secondary, and adult transition programs by pooling the resources of the state’s leading practitioners to provide a network of communication and resources for new and existing programs. FLATE participates on the board of directors and facilitates professional development workshops at FCPN venues. To learn more about FCPN visit https://facte.wildapricot.org/FCPN.