<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=192888919167017&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">
Thursday, March 28, 2024
March 28, 2024

Linkedin Pinterest

WSU-Tri Cities, Heritage U. partner on engineering track

The Columbian
Published: June 4, 2015, 12:00am

Two area universities are joining forces to generate more engineers while simultaneously guaranteeing a stream of students in future years.

Washington State University Tri-Cities and the private Heritage University in Toppenish will launch a new education track this fall. Students will earn a two-year pre-engineering degree at Heritage before continuing on for their bachelor’s in either civil, mechanical or electrical engineering at WSU Tri-Cities’ Richland campus.

Heritage anticipates enrolling about 15 students in the program in the next school year and is planning on that number growing with future classes.

Officials at both universities lauded the program, noting it will serve to bring more minorities, whom Heritage seeks to serve, into the engineering field.

It also means WSU Tri-Cities will be able to count on at least some students coming into its programs, a tactic other higher education institutions have pursued to shore up enrollment.

Engineering is a new realm for Heritage, a private nonprofit university with about 1,200 undergraduate and graduate students — most Hispanic and a significant minority Native American. But Michael Durst, director of Heritage’s pre-engineering program said the university worked with WSU Tri-Cities for about a year on the concept, motivated by the direction of Heritage President John Bassett.

The new track will be math-intensive, provide students an internship where they develop and build solar-powered water heaters, and ensure all of a student’s credits can transfer to WSU Tri-Cities. The internships, in particular, are an important component to making sure students are fully prepared not only to earn a bachelor’s degree but to go out and get a job.

More opportunities for hands-on learning accompanied by a high level of instruction will follow when the students move on to WSU Tri-Cities, said Joseph Ianelli, executive director of its engineering and computer science programs.

Loading...