July 20, 2015
Applications are now available for OCTAE’s
estimated nine new awards for its
Improved Reentry Education (IRE) program authorized by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. The average size of each
award is $300,000. The IRE program supports demonstration projects in prisoner
reentry education that show its effectiveness. According to the award notice,
“IRE seeks to demonstrate the critical need for high-quality, appropriately
designed, integrated, and well-implemented educational and related services in
institutional and community settings,” to support incarcerated individuals’
education goals and reentry success.
Interested parties are encouraged to review
the Federal Register notice for full details on the new awards, including
application requirements, eligibility, award information, and key deadlines.
There will be a pre-application webinar on July 20, 2015, at 2 p.m. EDT. This Webinar will cover the following: Background, the Reentry Education Model, the
PRSCEO Implementation Study, Applicant Eligibility, the IRE Notice, the IRE
Application, and FAQs. Participation in the Webinar is not required.
To register, please click here.
OCTAE welcomes the sharing of this information
with anyone who may be interested.
Please contact OCTAE’s Tammi Fergusson at Tammi.Fergusson@ed.gov or at 202-245-7706 with any questions or issues about
applying or pre-application webinar registration.
Award
applications are due on Aug. 12, 2015..
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Join OCTAE for the fourth webinar, “Lessons from Large Manufacturing Firms: How
to Assure Future Talent,” in the series “Skills on Purpose—Creating the
Next Generation of Manufacturers.” Firms
of all sizes face the same challenge of finding ‘work-ready’ employees who need
minimal additional training. Some large companies have found ways to
attend to the talent “supply chain” problem by engaging with colleges and
schools in creative ways. This webinar will describe the strategies two large
companies found for engaging with educators. It will include the issues they encountered
along the way as well as the possible paths for moving forward.
“Skills on Purpose—Creating the Next
Generation of Manufacturers” is a series of panel discussions between
government, business, and education stakeholders and institution
representatives. In these interactive webinars, panel members explore
strategies for building partnerships toward a workforce-driven transformation
of the manufacturing sector.
When: July 24, 2015, from 2–3 p.m. EDT.
To register for this event, click here.
All webinars are archived on the PCRN website.
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Two
Native American students at Salish Kootenai College (SKC) in Pablo, Montana,
Robert Sanchez and Zachary DuMontier, participated in building the small
satellite BisonSat. The students are participants in the tribal college’s
Information Technology Associate of Science Degree Program. BisonSat, a
“CubeSat,” is a 4 square inch cube satellite that universities, government
agencies, and private businesses use for low-cost access to the Earth’s orbit. It
is solar-powered, and carries an SKC-designed camera and a radio for receiving
commands sent from the SKC satellite communications station. It also works to transmit
data back to the station. These small satellites are carried into orbit as
secondary payloads on government and commercial rocket launches.
Through
their work on BisonSat, Sanchez and DuMontier had the opportunity to
participate in the entire process of the development and deployment of a space
flight mission with senior scientists. This stretched from the beginning design
phase through building the satellite, flight-readiness testing, Earth-orbital
observations, and science data analysis.
BisonSat
was selected for flight by NASA in a national competition, ranking third out of
33 selected CubeSats. It will be launched into the Earth’s orbit from
Vandenberg Air Force Base in California September 2015. The NASA-funded
ELaNa-12 mission will use the satellite to study the Earth’s atmosphere and
land use.
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 Zachary DuMontier
 Robert Sanchez
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