Joilet Junior College (JCC) in Illinois used its MentorLinks grant to focus on sustainability. In Nebraska, Northeast Community College (NCC) 
tapped its grant to ramp up its information technology program. In both projects, reaching out to the community they serve has been critical.
MentorLinks — a national program managed by the American Association of Community Colleges with support from the National Science Foundation— helps community colleges start or improve science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) programs at their institutions. Participating colleges are partnered with mentors who are experts in the targeted STEM field and are crucial to the success of MentorLinks projects
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Greg Pakieser, wanted to create a sustainable energy program at Joliet Junior College, where he serves as chair of the technical department. But 
he needed to examine how other colleges were teaching sustainable energy in addition to some guidance. Participating inMentorLinks allowed him to do that.
His takeaway from several college visits and the small demand locally for energy technicians is that a general education course on sustainable energy is the way to go. Pakieser hopes the curriculum he wrote with Ken Walz— director of renewable energy technology atMadison College (Wisconsin) who serves as JJC’s mentor through MentorLinks—will eventually teach people skills they can use throughout their lives.
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A connection with NASA and its contractors has not only helped a Virginia community college open the doors for student internships at the space agency and industry companies, but also jobs. The key to that connection was MentorLinks, a national program funded by theNational Science Foundation.
“I cannot imagine any way that $20,000 could have been spent which could have had a larger impact onEastern Shore Community College(ESCC),” said John Floyd, assistant professor of electronics at the college in Melfa, Va.
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The expertise and contacts of a MentorLinks mentor within the geospatial technology (GST) community invigorated Kaskaskia College to build an up-to-date GST program that meets employers’ needs.
The college in Centralia, Ill., plans to expand the GST certificate program it started during MentorLinks into an associate of applied science degree with the $196,342 Advanced Technological Education (ATE) grant it got this fall from the National Science Foundation.
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