WWU Partners With BTC on Grant from National Science Foundation

Art Sherwood, the Western Washington University David Cole Professor of Entrepreneurship and the director of the IDEA Institute, is teaming up with professors and researchers at Bellingham Technical College (BTC) on a new $650,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The grant is to support students in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields. The team of researchers and professors will focus on creating community for BTC’s STEM students to help them succeed in school and stick with the programs that they start in. This grant will provide financial aid and scholarships for students who need it, and expose them to people who are successful in the STEM fields who can act as mentors.

“The students involved with this program are going to get a chance that is really unusual. It will give them a community of support, and it will help them move forward through their education,” said Sherwood.

Along with community building and scholarships, the grant also allows for research about how these students can thrive in school. Sherwood will lead the research component of the grant as a co-principal investigator.

Sherwood, who began at Western in 2014, is a veteran entrepreneur who has over 25 years of experience in the private sector. He has founded multiple business including his most recent, innovate68.com, a global education and learning company.

In his research for the NSF grant, Sherwood will work with team members to establish what the end goals for the project will be and will monitor the progress toward the goals and effectiveness of the process as the research goes on. In the first year of the grant, Sherwood and his colleagues will build the framework for the program that students will participate in, and implement it the following school year.

To help move BTC students through the project, WWU will also send a student from the IDEA Institute to BTC in a mentorship role to encourage students and help them form a community among their peers. IDEA is a university-wide entrepreneurship and innovation institute at Western promoting multi-purpose, interdisciplinary entrepreneurship and innovation through courses, professional planning and research.

Jill Davishahl from the Engineering and Trades department at Bellingham Technical College is leading the team as the lead principal investigator, and Sherwood said one of the most valuable parts of this grant is being able to work with his colleagues at BTC. He said bringing two higher education institutions together has really been exciting.  

“Partnering with Jill and the staff at BTC was great. They were really on the ball, and  made this whole thing happen,” said Sherwood.

For more information about The IDEA Institute, visit https://idea.wwu.edu/.