MANSFIELD, OH – The Engineering program at The Ohio State University at Mansfield is a step closer to offering a four-year degree with a $75,000 endowment from the Hire Family Foundation. The endowment will fund the Jack Hire Engineering Scholarship, the first engineering scholarship to be awarded at Ohio State Mansfield.

“We are making significant inroads in building our Engineering program offerings at Ohio State Mansfield, a critical need identified by our business community partners,” said Dean and Director Stephen Gavazzi. “This scholarship will further our goal of supporting our engineering students on the Mansfield Campus.”

The regional campus is in its third year of offering freshman- and sophomore-level Fundamentals of Engineering, the same core courses engineering students take at the Columbus campus. Thanks to support by Kokosing Construction Company and others, the courses are taught in a state-of-the-art laboratory classroom. Students build upon a pre-calculus and calculus foundation to develop fundamental technical skills to prepare for advanced coursework in any engineering major.

Ohio State Mansfield plans to expand the program to allow local students to complete a bachelor’s degree in at least one specific engineering field from start-to-finish on the Mansfield campus.

Stoneridge, formally Hi-Stat, which was founded by Jack Hire, also has provided internship opportunities to students at Ohio State Mansfield and North Central State College since the inception two years ago of the Business & Industry Internship Program.

North Central State College and The Ohio State University at Mansfield are among four Ohio institutions of higher learning who have been awarded a national technical assistance grant from the Ohio Board of Regents to help bolster science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs. Ohio is one of five states to receive the national Complete College of America Award from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.

The Ohio schools, also including Central State University and Shawnee State University, will receive training to help them strengthen their STEM programs and design pathways to ensure students who sign up for these programs can get into the required courses, graduate on time and receive assistance in finding employment in their fields upon graduation.

“The four campuses selected have shown great leadership in embracing this effort. The leadership of each of these institutions is deeply committed to establishing reforms that improve student achievement in STEM fields, and maximize the in-depth technical assistance provided by this grant,” Board of Regents Chancellor John Carey said.

NC State and Ohio State Mansfield plan to further develop collaborative associate’s to bachelor’s degree programs in engineering with the grant support. NC State advisors will help students identify and be successful in essential STEM courses in order to advance in their engineering major and then continue toward a bachelor’s degree at Ohio State Mansfield.

“We hope to extend this type of advising to other majors in the future,” said Ohio State Mansfield Dean and Director Stephen Gavazzi. “But, we felt that in engineering, if students are not adequately prepared, they don’t usually fare well and there’s a lower success rate.”

“Our strong partnership with OSU-Mansfield, especially in the STEM areas, and through the vision of the one-campus district that we are collaborating on, will take our service to the community to higher levels than ever seen before,” said Dorey Diab, President of North Central State College.

The initiative supports Governor John Kasich’s commitment to having an Ohio workforce that is prepared for the jobs of the global economy.

“Continuing to ramp up our focus on the sciences means Ohioans will have the skills to take advantage of the rising demand for scientists, technology experts, engineers and mathematicians. It also means that Ohio will be able to more effectively compete against other states for jobs requiring these skills,” said Tracy Intihar, director of the Governor’s Office of Workforce Transformation.