CCC student can take 1st engineering ‘STEP' here

COLUMBUS - Students who want an engineering degree can get their start at community colleges and finish their quest at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The university started a transfer program called Strengthening Transitions into Engineering Programs (STEP). It is a partnership with the Central Community College system and the other community colleges in the state.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Engineering was awarded a $1.99 million grant from the National Science Foundation to start it. The program will begin this fall. Through it, students are able to complete freshman and sophomore engineering courses at a community colleges and then transfer to the UNL College of Engineering enabling the student to earn a bachelor's degree in a four-year time frame.

At Central Community College-Columbus, Dianna Parmley, dean of educational services, said she was excited to be able to offer the program to students.

“This would give bright students who have an excellent background the opportunity to come to the community college for two years. It will save them a considerable amount of money, they will have smaller classes and individual advising,” Parmley said.

Like the other community colleges, CCC-Columbus has four engineering courses developed for the STEP program: freshman multidisciplinary engineering design, MATLAB programming and problem solving, engineering statistics, and introduction to circuits and electronics. Those courses, along with taking other courses during a student's first two years will earn the student an associate of science degree from Central Community College. Then, as a junior, a student can transfer to UNL to finish earning an engineering degree. There are five engineering programs offered at UNL: agricultural, civil, electrical, industrial and mechanical.

Parmley said she isn't sure how popular STEP will be with CCC-Columbus students, but she hopes that it will help meet the goal of increasing engineering enrollment numbers at UNL, which she said have been declining.

“I think we have an excellent opportunity to give help to students who want to save money and who really want to take advantage of what we have to offer,” Parmley said.