Education and Workforce

The Virginia Space Grant Consortium (VSGC) is part of NASA’s National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program. Established in 1989, VSGC  is a coalition of five Virginia colleges and universities, NASA, state educational agencies, Virginia’s Center for Innovative Technology, and other institutions representing diverse science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education and research. The VSGC acts as an umbrella organization, coordinating and developing STEM and  high technology educational and research efforts throughout the Commonwealth and connecting Virginia’s effort to a national community of shared interests.

Virginia Space Grant Consortium (VSGC) with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) coordinates the GeoTEd-UAS project to build UAS education and workforce development capacity at Virginia’s community colleges. Project partners include: Thomas Nelson Community College, Mountain Empire Community College, Virginia Tech, and the Virginia Community College System.

The project has four major components: (1) Developing a Curriculum (DACUM) chart to define tasks/duties of a small UAS operator technician (sUAS); (2) Five new UAS-focused courses that all colleges can use; (3) Faculty professional development for 27 educators hosted by Virginia Tech including the MAAP FAA test site for activities; (4) Middle and High school student outreach and teacher professional development.  GeoTEd-UAS has emphasized student service-learning as an effective way to provide students with real-world hands-on experience in using UAS to collect data and solve problems. Partnerships with The Nature Conservancy, NASA, and others have allowed students to fly real missions to collect real data. 

The curriculum focuses on UAS safety, planning, operations, and data analysis. GeoTEd-UAS has resulted in: two new academic pathway models; eight colleges offering UAS courses (UMS course prefix); 26 educators obtaining FAA Remote Pilot Certificate; and hundreds of students exposed to hands-on flying and sUAS operations. VSGC has developed a pre-college outreach model program that includes hands-on flying with hobbyist drones, flying and racing competitions, and drone building from a kit. The program has been offered in various formats and lengths to more than 600 students and teachers.

Through the project, Thomas Nelson Community College now has a 9-credit hour Career Studies Certificate in Small UAS Flight Operations. Mountain Empire Community College has developed a two-year AAS technical studies degree in sUAS Operations.

The Virginia Space Grant Consortium (VSGC) in partnership with the Virginia Community College System (VCCS), NASA Langley Research Center and NASA Wallops Flight Facility, is offering the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Takes Flight (STF) at Virginia’s Community Colleges initiative.  STF opportunities include a 10-week paid ($5,000) summer research experience assigned to a NASA researcher for community college students pursuing a STEM major (exclusive of health and business) and a NASA residential professional development workshop for faculty in STEM disciplines statewide. The program deadline is typically the end of February each year.

For more information, please visit http://www.vsgc.odu.edu/STEMtakesFlight/ 

In response to the increasing demand for skilled Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) workers in Virginia, the Virginia Space Grant Consortium (VSGC) created the Commonwealth STEM Industry Internship Program (CSIIP).  This program is supported by the Commonwealth of Virginia and strongly supported by the Governor’s office.  CSIIP links Virginia based companies offering paid STEM internship opportunities with Virginia undergraduate students pursuing a STEM major, including but not limited to high-need areas such as Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology, Cybersecurity, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Physical Sciences and Financial majors (Accounting, Finance, Economics, Statistics). Students pursuing certifications in high needs technical areas such as Cybersecurity, Geospatial Technology, Mechatronics, and Aviation Maintenance are encouraged to apply. Exiting military are also encouraged to apply.

As a partner in the Virginia Cyber Alliance with Old Dominion University (ODU) Virginia Modeling Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC), VSGC can offer financial subsidies for company-paid student cybersecurity and unmanned systems-related internships located in Go Virginia’s Region 5.

This program is a free service. It provides registered companies with access to our highly searchable database with an average of 800+ undergraduate STEM students entered, as well as access to our staff. For more information, please visit our website at csiip.org.